Piezoresistive structural composites reinforced by carbon nanotube-grafted quartz fibres
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Accepted version
Supporting information
Author(s)
De Luca, Hugo
Anthony, David
Greenhalgh, Emile
Bismarck, Alexander
Shaffer, Milo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Nano-engineered fibre/matrix interfaces can improve state-of-the-art fibre-reinforced composites. Grafting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to high temperature quartz glass fibres produces “hairy” or “fuzzy” fibres, which combine reinforcements at micrometre and nanometre length scales. Fuzzy quartz fibres were produced continuously, reel-to-reel, on whole tows, in an open chemical vapour deposition reactor. The resulting uniform coverage of 200 nm long CNTs increased the interfacial shear strength with epoxy (90.3 ± 2.1 MPa) by 12% compared to the commercially-sized counterpart, as measured by single fibre pull-out tests. The improved interfacial properties were confirmed at the macroscale using unidirectional hierarchical bundle composites, which exhibited a delayed onset of fibre/matrix debonding. Although the quartz fibres are electrically insulating, the grafted CNT create a conductive path, predominantly parallel to the fibres. To explore the applicability for structural health monitoring, the resistivity was recorded in situ during mechanical testing, and correlated with simultaneous acoustic emission data. The baseline resistivity parallel to the fibres (ρ0 = 3.9 ± 0.4 × 10−1 Ω m) displayed a linear piezoresistive response (K = 3.64) until failure at ca. 2.1% strain, also referred to as "gauge factor”, a two-fold improvement over traditional resistance strain gauges (e.g. constantan). Hierarchical, fuzzy quartz fibres, therefore, simultaneously enhance both structural and sensing performance, offering multifunctional opportunities in large composite parts.
Date Issued
2020-09-29
Date Acceptance
2020-05-29
Citation
Composites Science and Technology, 2020, 198, pp.1-12
ISSN
0266-3538
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Composites Science and Technology
Volume
198
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0266353820304620?via%3Dihub
Subjects
09 Engineering
Materials
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2020-06-08