Comparison of flexural and physical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes added glass fiber reinforced polymer composites produced by conventional direct mixing and innovative spray method

Glass fibers show significantly low out of plane/through thickness/z-axis properties because of weak fiber/matrix interphase. This weak interphase directly affects z-axis properties such as interlaminar shear strength, flexural strength, delamination resistance etc. In this study, it has been aimed to enhance the through thickness properties of MWCNTs grafted GFPCs produced by using different production methods which are Direct Mixing Method and Spray Method. Also, Triton X-100 has been used in some composite productions to distribute MWCNTs more homogeneously. To see the effects of these methods on the composite materials Three-Point bending test, Shore D and Vickers hardness tests and, SEM analysis have been conducted. As a result of conducted studies, the best flexural strength and flexural modulus are obtained as 411.309 MPa and 20.186 GPa in composite materials produced by Spray Method with the aid of Triton X-100. Also, increases in flexural strength and flexural modulus are about 5.33 percent and 19.79 percent as compared to control sample. In the other hand, when composite materials compared with control sample, decreases in flexural strength and increases in flexural modulus are observed. Also, Shore D and Vickers hardness test results revealed that hardness of composite materials produced by Direct Mixing Method and Spray Method increase with the addition of MWCNTs to the composite structure. The SEM images revealed that best dispersion of MWCNTs are obtained from composite materials produced by Spray Method with Triton X-100. Also, the images clearly demonstrated that the effect of Triton X-100 on the dispersion of MWCNTs in parallel with flexural properties of composite materials produced by using Triton X-100.