Investigation of the effect of carbon nanotubes on hybrid glass/carbon fiber reinforced composites

Composites have been attaining great concentration due to the customized properties of reinforcements and matrices and their ability to make high performance materials to replace the current structural materials. The development for the high performance composites with very low weights of materials is keeping high interest levels for the researchers. Few decades later, the discovery of Carbon Nanotubes helped the researchers in making a way for the high performance materials. This discovery also took a positive effect on the performance of composite materials. Carbon Nanotubes have been acknowledged widely for strengthening the mechanical properties of the composites. There are several ways to accommodate the interaction of the CNTs within the composite materials but the costs are high. Chemical Vapour Deposition is an effective way to grow CNTs on reinforcement but it requires higher temperatures and time. The elevated temperature also affects the strength of the reinforcement. The interaction of CNTs with the reinforcement by grafting technique is a suitable technique to induce even distribution of CNTs in the composite materials. According to the study this technique can be used prior to the composite development (i.e. Vacuum bagging, Vacuum Resin Infusion etc.). The temperature requirement is low as compared to the chemical vapour deposition method. The dispersion of CNTs also takes place in an organic solvent which has an advantage over the CNTs dispersion in matrix. To develop samples of CNTs reinforced composite, flat surface mould is selected. Epoxy resin as matrix material while E-glass fibres and carbon fibres are used as reinforcement material. Three layered composites were prepared with four different combinations. 20 samples were produced, utilizing vacuum bagging technique, of dimension (0.40 x 0.30) 1.2 m2. 16 out of 20 samples are simple composites without grafting of CNTs while others are CNT grafted. Reinforcement is used in the form of woven fabrics. CNTs functionalized with carboxylic group were dispersed in dimethylformamide/PAN suspension through ultra-sonication and sprayed onto the reinforcements in four different volume combinations for each side of the reinforcement i.e. 5 ml, 7.5 ml, 10 ml, 12.5 ml. The process is followed by thermal treatment at 250oC for 3 hours. Reinforcement material is laid on a plain mould after applying lubricant on the base. Resin was applied through hand layup and composites were manufactured by vacuum bagging technique. Mechanical analysis was carried out. ASTM D-3039 standard procedure was followed for tensile tests while ISO 14125 standard procedure was followed for the bending tests of composite. Their comparison of the results for the tensile, flexural and impact tests showed interesting improvements in the strength of some composite materials. There was no significant improvement in the tensile properties of the composite materials except for the [CCC] composites grafted with 15 ml of CNT/PAN. Significant improvement is observed in the flexural properties of the composite materials grafted with CNTs. In order to compare the MWCNTs grafted composites with the Matrix dispersed MWCNTs composites, 4 more specimens were prepared with the same mean quantity of the MWCNTs in CNTs grafted composites. In this case also, the results showed higher raise in the flexural strength up to 70% of the composites but the tensile strength remain unchanged. The impact strength results also showed valuable information about the usage of the MWCNTs in the composite system. The impact response was improved as the CNT content increased within both the techniques. 15ml – 20 ml of CNT/PAN solution enhanced the impact response to a higher extent whereas the dispersion technique also helped in improving the impact behaviour of the composite material. This practical study about the effect of carbon nanotubes concludes the influence of techniques by which CNTs are introduced into the composite material and their compatibility with the reinforcement in each technique. The method which is usually carried out to incorporate the CNTs in the composite material is through chemical vapour deposition which consists of very high temperature treatment up to 800 o C. Since this method requires high temperature conditions which is economically not good and the reinforcements can also be degraded when treated with higher temperatures for longer times, the other methods can play an important role in utilizing the maximum performance properties of the reinforcements. Two methods which are used in this study consists of the grafting method and the dispersion method. Grafting method deals with the interaction of CNTs directly with the reinforcements to incorporate chemical bonds. In order to increase affinity of CNTs towards the reinforcement to produce chemical bonding, the CNTs are functionalized with the acid group (–COOH) prior to the introduction with the reinforcements. Functionalized CNTs and polyacrylonitrile fibres are dispersed in dimethylformamide through ultrasonic processor so that the aggregates could be properly dispersed in the solvent. The dispersion is sprayed on both sides of the reinforcements followed by the oven treatment at 250 oC for 3 hours so that bonding could take place. In this study 4 different volumes of dispersion with same concentration of CNTs were used to observe the effects on mechanical properties of the composite materials. After the oven treatment, composites were manufactured using the hand layup process for resin spreading and excessive resin was extracted out using the vacuum bagging. The grafting technique was expected to give improved tensile properties to the composites because the direct chemical bonding of CNTs with the reinforcements strengthens the branched networks ultimately empowering the material to hold bigger loads with breaking. The results came out to be good for the [CCC] composites but the degradation was more in other combinations. Further to that the higher volumes of CNT dispersion also drastically degraded the tensile properties of the material which could be the reason of slipping layers over each other. The flexural and impact properties of the materials showed particular improvements in 15ml and 20ml of the spray volumes which was quite significant. Second methodology which is used in this study for incorporating CNTs in the composite materials is by dispersion method that takes place by dispersing the CNTs in the resin through ultrasonication. The resin dispersed with CNTs is then hand laid up on the reinforcement followed by vacuum bagging to make composites. Ultrasonic dispersion allowed the CNTs to stack themselves in the matrix in such a way that could produce continuous networking structure which reduces the tendency of micro-cracking in the composites. In the experiments, this methodology showed a little improvements in the tensile direction also but the major improvements were seen in the flexural and impact properties. The impact response of the composite was drastically improved that allowed to absorb more force without cracking. The usage of glass fabric in hybrid composites also influences the flexural and impact properties of the entire material since it has high flexural properties. Combination of glass fabric along with the CNTs network helps in creating a resultant material with significant improvement in flexural and impact strength properties. The reason lies in the continuous stacking arrangement of the CNTs in the matrix. The stacking arrangement of CNTs depends on the diameter of CNTs which makes it able to acquire more surface area towards the matrix. Smaller diameter nanotubes are considered as fine which allows much closely stacking arrangement causing the continuous network of nanostructures which increases the strength of the composite material. The alignment of stacking is also considered a very important characteristic. Properties along the axis of the nanotubes are enhanced whereas the properties which are dependent on perpendicular alignment are sacrificed. Proper dispersion of the CNTs in the solvent or resin defines the stacking of nanotubes and reduce the agglomeration of the nanoparticles which cause the deficiency in the strength. The higher quantities of the CNTs in the composite also increases the probability of agglomeration which causes the concentrated stress of very smaller areas which leads to ultimate damage.