Influence of Reduced Graphene Oxide on Epoxy/Carbon Fiber‐Reinforced Hybrid Composite: Flexural and Shear Properties under Varying Temperature Conditions

Abstract

This study investigat the effectiveness of reduced graphene oxide as nanofiller in enhancing epoxy/carbon fiber-reinforced composite at varying temperature conditions. The graphene oxide is synthesized using modified Hummer's method and then is chemically reduced to yield reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO is dispersed in epoxy matrix system through combination of mechanical and sonication methods. The flexural and shear test samples are manufactured using resin infusion technique. These samples are then tested to determine their shear and flexural properties at varying temperatures (À10 C, 23 C, 40 C) and the results correlate to neat samples. It is found that the composites' flexural strength and flexural modulus increase with rGO wt% content up to 62% and 44%, respectively. The shear testing results show improvement on the shear strength and modulus at maximum of 6% and 40%, respectively. The rGO improvements advantage is lost for flexural strength, shear strength, and modulus at elevated temperatures while flexural modulus withheld at 40% improvements over virgin epoxy/carbon fiber-reinforced composite. An interesting observation is that all samples with rGO exhibit reduced damage characteristics superior to the neat samples under flexural and shear loading conditions. This study indicates that the addition of rGO significantly alter the flexural and shear properties, failure modes, damage characteristics, and they are overall sensitive to elevated temperature conditions.

A Rheological Study of Fibre Reinforced Composites and The Factors That Affect Rheological Behaviour During Impregnation Process: A Review

“…Thus, the inability to accurately design the curing process may lead to a poor fibre/matrix bonding, large residual stress, and can even lead to thermal degradation of the matrix due to high temperature [57]. [58] Biobased Epoxy resin Pouladvand et al, [59] DGEBA Epoxy and EPON828 Epoxy resin H. Li et al, [60] Epoxy Resin Gbadeyan et al, [61] LR 30 and LH 30 Epoxy resin Memon et al, [62] AFG-90H Epoxy resin Walte et al, [63] HSC 7660 Epoxy resin Shi et al, [64] Epoxy Resin Raju et al, [65] LY556 Epoxy resin C. Zheng et al, [66] Phenolic Resin S. Yang et al, [67] DGEBA Epoxy resin S. Y. Kim et al, [68] EPON828 Epoxy resin Austermann et al, [69] Epoxy-based photopolymer resin EPX81 K. Zhang et al, [70] DGEBA E51 Epoxy resin Shukla et al, [71] LY556 Epoxy resins Jenkins et al, [72] IN2 Epoxy Ekrem et al, [73] DGEBA Epoxy resin Zhao et al, [74] DGEBA Epoxy resin Lei et al, [75] Modified resol phenolic resin Billisik and Sapanci [76] Araldite EPN 1138 Phenolic Resin Ciesielski et al, [77] DGEBA Epoxy resin Asaro et al, [78] Ammonium-modified phenolic resin Martins et al, [79] DGEBA Epoxy resin M. Li et al, [80] Epoxy resin E51…”

Recent Developments in Graphene Oxide/Epoxy Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites

“…A most recent study by Jenkins et al (2019) focused on the evaluation of epoxy/carbon fiber-reinforced composite containing varying quantities of rGO and examine the shear and flexural properties of these samples at varying temperatures form −10 to 40 • C. They employed the resin infusion technique to manufacture the hybrid composites as demonstrated on Figure 7.…”

New Materials and Processes for Transport Applications: Going Hybrid and Beyond

“…Jenkins et al's study on the influence of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as nanofiller to modify epoxy matrix characteristics in a CFRP can be seen as a bridge between conventional fiber reinforced composites on the one hand and hybrid materials and nanocomposites on the other. In it, bending and shear tests are performed at different rGO content levels which concentrate on the influence of temperatures between −10 and +40 °C on mechanical characteristics and failure modes …”