Deformation of Bioinspired MXene-Based Polymer Composites with Brick and Mortar Structures: A Computational Analysis

Abstract

In this work, the deformation behavior of MXene-based polymer composites with bioinspired brick and mortar structures is analyzed. MXene/Polymer nanocomposites are modeled at microscale for bioinspired configurations of nacre-mimetic brick-and-mortar assembly structure. MXenes (brick) with polymer matrix (mortar) are modeled using classical analytical methods and numerical methods based on finite elements (FE). The analytical methods provide less accurate estimation of elastic properties compared to the numerical one. MXene nanocomposite models analyzed with the FE method provide estimates of elastic constants in the same order of magnitude as literature-reported experimental results. Bioinspired design of MXene nanocomposites results in an effective increase of Young’s modulus of the nanocomposite by 25.1% and strength (maximum stress capacity within elastic limits) enhanced by 42.3%. The brick and mortar structure of the nanocomposites leads to an interlocking mechanism between MXene fillers in the polymer matrix, resulting in effective load transfer, good strength, and damage resistance. This is demonstrated in this paper by numerical analysis of MXene nanocomposites subjected to quasi-static loads.

Micromechanical modeling of nacre-mimetic Ti3C2-MXene nanocomposites with viscoelastic polymer matrix

“…The material properties of the epoxy-resin polymer used in this paper are [16]: Young's modulus (E) of 3.0741 GPa, Poisson's ratio (µ) of 0.29, density (ρ) of 1.1 × 10 −9 tmm −3 , and allowable maximum stress of 49.9 MPa.…”

“…The multi-point constraints (MPCs) method available in the FEA environment is used to embed the 2D MXene sheets in the polymer matrix, thus, linking the nodal degrees of freedom of the MXene 2D element with the polymer matrix element. MXene monolayer or flakes of the dimensions mentioned in "Geometric and Elastic properties of Ti 3 C 2 -MXene" section are created using thick plate elements in MSC Marc software [15] to construct the microscale model. These MXene flakes are embedded in an epoxy-resin matrix which forms the representative volume element (RVE) structure used for analysis.…”

“…The perfectly bonded interface assumption is used between the MXenes and epoxy-resin polymer to set up the MPC equations. The MXene flakes with the elastic properties provided in "Geometric and Elastic properties of Ti 3 C 2 -MXene" section are distributed in the polymer matrix based on bioinspired nacre-mimetic brick-and-mortar assembly [15] to provide enhanced and controllable mechanical properties for the Ti 3 C 2 -MXNC.…”

“…Along with the experimental investigations into Ti 3 C 2 -MXenes and its nanocomposite properties, there has been mathematical modeling of the Ti 3 C 2 -MXNC. There have been applications of both analytical and numerical methods available in continuum mechanics theory to Ti 3 C 2 -MXNC at the microscale [13][14][15]. All these works consider the elastic behavior of polymer matrices.…”

“…In this paper, the response of the Ti 3 C 2 -MXNC is studied using an epoxy-resin polymer matrix, subjected to quasi-static tensile load. Bioinspired nacre-mimetic brick-and-mortar assembly micromechanical modeling along with finite element analysis (FEA) technique (numerical method) is used for these nanocomposites [16]. The polymer matrices are modeled with elastic and viscoelastic (Kelvin-Voigt) behavior.…”