Mechanical and physical performance of carbon aerogel reinforced carbon fibre hierarchical composites
File(s)
Accepted version
Supporting information
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Carbon aerogel (CAG) is a potential hierarchical reinforcement to improve the matrix-dominated mechanical properties of continuous carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites in both multifunctional and purely structural applications. When using CAG to reinforce a polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE) matrix, the interlaminar shear strength, compressive modulus and strength increased approximately four-fold, whilst the out-of-plane electrical conductivity increased by 118%. These mechanical and electrical performance enhancements significantly improve the multifunctional efficiency of composite structural supercapacitors, which can offer weight savings in transport and other applications. However, CAG also has the potential to reinforce conventional continuous CF composites in purely structural contexts. Here, CAG reinforcement of structural epoxy resin composites marginally increased compressive (1.4%) and tensile (2.7%) moduli respectively, but considerably reduced compressive, tensile and interlaminar shear strengths. Fractographic analysis shows that the reduced performance can be attributed to poor interfacial adhesion; in the future, alternative processing routes may resolve these issues to achieve advances in both moduli and strengths over conventional structural CFRPs.
Date Issued
2019-09-29
Date Acceptance
2019-07-09
Citation
Composites Science and Technology, 2019, 182
ISSN
0266-3538
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Composites Science and Technology
Volume
182
Copyright Statement
© 2019 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/
Sponsor
QinetiQ Limited
Commission of the European Communities
Ministry Of Defence
Clean Sky Joint Undertaking
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
AT/FRN/12750/IMP
FP7 - 234236
DSTLX-1000068041
738085
AERO/RB1527
EP/P007465/1
Subjects
Materials
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
107720
Date Publish Online
2019-07-10