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Carbon Fiber Composites Based on Multi‐Phase Epoxy/PES Matrices with Carbon Nanotubes: Morphology and Interlaminar Fracture Toughness Characterization
Author(s) -
Prasad Nakul,
Tola Carmen,
Coulaud Magali,
Claes Michael,
Lomov Stepan V.,
Verpoest Ignaas,
Gorbatikh Larissa
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201600153
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , carbon nanotube , fracture toughness , epoxy , composite number , toughness , phase (matter) , morphology (biology) , thermoplastic , chemistry , organic chemistry , biology , genetics
The authors investigate the interlaminar fracture toughness of unidirectional carbon fiber composites with eight different matrix systems. The matrices are blends of epoxy and polyethersulfone (PES) thermoplastic that are additionally reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Based on the content of PES, different multi‐phase morphologies (including particulate, co‐continuous, and phase inverted) are obtained. The presence of fibers and CNTs is found to affect these morphologies in the composite. The interlaminar fracture toughness increases for high PES contents where co‐continuous and inverted morphologies are present. No synergy between CNTs and PES is observed. The improvements achieved in the study are highest (above 100%) for the composites containing 15% of PES (with and without CNTs).