Surface-modified silica nanoparticles in resin systems improve the toughness of fibre reinforced epoxy composites, which otherwise are brittle by nature. This paper presents the results in improvement of fracture toughness and fatigue resistance of glass reinforced composites by using silica nanoparticles in fibre sizing. We used a kiss-roll system to apply the sizing formulations with silica nanoparticles to the de-sized glass roving. The resulting total size content on the fibre was 1.8 wt.%. Compared to the control samples, the composites with silica nanoparticles in sizing show two-fold increase in the fatigue performance. Further, the interlaminar fracture toughness (G_(IC)) improved by 40% for the sample with 0.24 wt.% silica nanoparticles in sizing. However, a higher concentration of silica nanoparticles reduced the G_(IC). Nevertheless, the use of surface-modified silica nanoparticles even at smaller quantities in the sizing could significantly improve the long-term service life of the composite structures.
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