GO/rGO as Reinforcing Nanofiller in Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Resin Composite Systems

Interfacial interactions between matrix and reinforcement of composites influences greatly in final properties of the material. Carbon Fibers are characterized for to have low interactions with resins when forming a composite material. In the present study, 0.3 wt% of GO/rGO were incorporated in three systems of epoxy resin/carbon fiber as reinforcing fillers, trying to profit the chemical affinity between aromatics structures of GO/rGO and polar interactions with epoxy resin. GO/rGO were characterized by XPS, TGA was performed on carbon fiber, epoxy resins and composites obtained and SEM was utilized to observe composite samples in detail once mechanical tests were conducted. Composites experienced noticeable enhancements by employing Bisphenol Epoxy (BP) cured with methyl cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic anhydride (MCHDA) as matrix and carbon fiber of 300 g/cm2 as reinforcement; Youngs modulus, rupture stress and elongation to fail- ure increased almost twofold compared to non-modified composites by adding GO in the system and even superior boosts can be appreciated with rGO, which additionally improves the flexural stress from 14.6 to 30.1 GPa