High-Performance Graphene-Based Natural Fiber Composites

Abstract

Natural fiber composites are attracting significant interest due to their potential for replacing synthetic composites at lower cost with improved environmental sustainability. However, natural fiber composites suffer from poor mechanical and interfacial properties. Here, we report coating of graphene oxide (GO) and graphene flakes (G) onto natural jute fibers to improve mechanical and interfacial properties. The coating of graphene materials onto jute fibers enhanced interfacial shear strength by ∼236% and tensile strength by ∼96% more than untreated fibers by forming either bonding (GO) or mechanical interlocking (G) between fibers and graphene-based flakes. This could lead to manufacturing of high-performance and environmental friendly natural fiber composites that can potentially replace synthetic composites in numerous applications, such as the automotive industry, naval vessels, household products, and even in the aerospace industry.

Effect of Carbon Nanostructures and Fatty Acid Treatment on the Mechanical and Thermal Performances of Flax/Polypropylene Composites

“…The convenient dip-coating method used did not lead to a significant reduction in the mechanical properties of the fabrics if one considers the natural variability in the mechanical responses of natural fibers, as can be inferred from the tensile tests on flax fabrics (Figure 4), thus excluding any degradation effects of the cellulose and of the cell wall materials. GO and graphene flakes significantly increased both the tensile strength and the Young's modulus of single jute fibers [32]. This better mechanical performance was ascribed by the authors to a kind of healing effect played by these nanostructures, in that they were able to remove stress concentrations on the fiber surfaces due to their homogeneous and uniform coating.…”

“…In principle, natural fibers exhibit the unique feature of having a set of hydroxyl groups in cellulose that are reactive and available for potential interactions with host nanostructures, coupled with mechanical interlocking with the rough grooves that characterize the surfaces of natural fibers. This feature was used by Sarker et al [32] for decorating jute fibers with a uniform layer of graphene oxide (GO) by exploiting the oxygen functional groups of GO and the effects produced by an alkali pre-treatment that removed the cementing layer and exposed the hydroxyl groups of cellulose. When less-reactive graphene flakes were used, these were not fixed on the jute fiber surface.…”

“…This coating enhanced the flexural strength and modulus of an epoxy-based composite by 38.4% and 36.8%, respectively, while a microdebonding test highlighted an increase in the interfacial shear strength of 25.7%. Sarker et al [32] coated graphene materials, i.e., graphene oxide (GO) and graphene flakes (G), on alkali-treated jute fibers, and an interfacial shear strength enhancement of~236% compared to untreated fibers was achieved. In [33], the authors coupled a jute fiber individualization procedure with the grafting of GO and subsequent hot pressing to get preforms that were then vacuum-infused with epoxy matrix.…”

Surface Modification of Flax Yarns by Enzymatic Treatment and Their Interfacial Adhesion with Thermoset Matrices

“…With this in mind, many strategies that have been investigated over the years suffer from the need to handle large amounts of chemicals [3][4][5][6] or complex equipment [7][8][9][10][11], which can limit their full industrial exploitation. Another recent approach consists of decorating the fibres' surface with nanostructures to increase the surface area and the stress transfer of the polymer matrix [12][13][14], but this strategy usually involves several processing steps that make it less attractive for industrial applications. In [15], the authors reported the grafting of TiO 2 onto flax fibres with a view to increasing the mechanical properties of poly lactic acid-based composites.…”

Interface engineering of graphene nanosheet reinforced ZrB2 composites by tuning surface contacts

“…Although it was reported that the interfacial shear strength can be enhanced by ∼ 236% and the tensile strength by ∼ 96% via coating graphene materials. 21 In most cases, the interfacial characteristics is still vague since the characterization techniques of interfaces are generally in an early development stage [22][23][24] . The difficulty here comes from the nano-size and morphology of interfaces, the presence and variation of defects along interfaces, the sophisticated interface alignments during tests, as well as the complexity associated to data deconvolution and deviations from physical models.…”