Exploring the interlaminar toughening potential of carbon nanoparticles: Structural and size effects

This work explored the influence of the intrinsic structure and size of different carbon nanoparticles on the morphologies of their corresponding aggregated structures, as well as their interlaminar toughening effect in carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites. CNTs and Grs with different sizes were selected as building blocks of toughening layer, which were firstly well-dispersed into acetone and then spray-coated onto the surface of carbon fabrics. The results indicate that one-dimensional filamentous CNTs are prone to forming loose and porous layers, exhibiting better interlaminar toughening effects. On the contrary, the layers formed by two-dimensional sheet-like graphene are relatively dense at microscale, which weakens the interlaminar fracture toughness of the laminated plate. In addition, CNTs with short length have a larger BET surface area at nanoscale and form a porous layer at microscale, showing best interlaminar toughening efficiency.