Tuning the through-thickness orientation of 1D nanocarbons to enhance the electrical conductivity and ILSS of hierarchical CFRP composites

Abstract

In this article, we proposed a novel but simple multilayer resin film infusion-compressive molding (MLRFI-CM) manufacturing process that can harness the resin shear flow to architect hierarchical carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites with tunable 1D nanocarbons orientation. Via this novel process, we demonstrated that the orientation of two typical 1D nanocarbons, namely, the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs), can be successfully tuned via altering the infusion time and that the tuning strategy is especially effective toward CNTs. Further, the structure-performance relationships between the electrical conductivity/interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and filler through-thickness orientation of the hierarchical CFRP composites is explored and compared. In the best case, with only 0.3 wt% of CNTs, the ILSS of CFRP composites revealed an increase of 19.7%, and the through-thickness conductivity demonstrated an increase of 38%.

Keywords

• orientation tuning
• electrical conductivity
• ilss