Composite materials are any material composed of two or more components which, ideally, combine to give a final material which possesses the benefits of each part. A common example of this is the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRPs), which are being used in a huge amount of structures for lightweighting, due to their extremely high strength to weight ratio. While these materials are excellent alternatives to traditional metals such as aluminium or magnesium, they do possess some inherent flaws. The most dominant of this is the fibre-to-matrix interface, unlike metals which are a homogenous material, composites by their definition are not. The ability of the plastic to transfer energy, stress, and load to the reinforcing fibre is critical to the development of high performance materials, and to the full realisation of these materials’ potential. Currently, the best CFRPs are able to translate 40-50% of the carbon fibres’ material properties to the final component – the majority of this loss occurring at the fibre-to-matrix interface. In this work, we have developed a wet chemical approach to modify of the surface of carbon fibres to complement the intended polymeric support. We have shown that the use of small molecule manipulation of the fibre surface can have huge ramifications on the ultimate interface/interphase and the performance of the composite material. Using a click chemistry (Copper Azide Alkyne Cycloaddition) approach we have shown that the surface of carbon fibres can be tuned to complement a specific resin and this approach can lead to interfacial shear strength improvements of over 200%. These results are complemented by molecular dynamics simulation of the carbon fibre-resin interface which assist in determining the key interactions for excellent interfacial adhesion.

Modifying the surface of carbon fiber for fiber-to-matrix adhesion

255th National Meeting (2018)

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