Photo-thermal dual-curing of a carbon fiber reinforced photoresin is reported in this study. The primary limitation of carbon fibers is that they are opaque to ultraviolet (UV) light, and the resin present inside the carbon fiber tow remains uncured if only a photolytic mechanism is used. Therefore, a dual-curing resin formulation was developed that consisted of acrylate ester of bisphenol A-epoxy (primary resin), 1-hydroxycyclohexyl phenyl ketone (a photoinitiator), and lauroyl peroxide (thermal initiator). The fibers were dispersed in the resin and phtocured by UV radiation. Subsequently, the composites were thermally cured to solidity the resin present inside the fiber tow. Differential scanning calorimetry indicates that the thermal initiator activates at approximately 70 deg C. The dual-cured composites, processed by a dip-coating technique and also in a desktop photolithography unit, were tack-free and fully solidified in the interior. Thus, it was established that by using a dualcuring be curred to produce a carbon fiber reinforced photoresin. Such a reaction scheme has application in composite photolithography where incorporation of carbon fibers into photopolymers can enhance electrical and thermal conductivities of rapid tooling materials.
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