The automotive industry is looking for alternative high strength, lightweight materials in vehicle designs in order to decrease emission by reducing vehicle weight. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites are a promising alternative due to high strength-to-weight ratio. However, to overcome the high cost of carbon fibers (CFs), alternative precursors are required to replace polyacrylonitrile (PAN), the most widely used CFs precursor. Investigating graphene inclusion into PAN matrix precursor provides insights whether adding graphene to lower cost precursors such as polyethylene (PE) and Nylon can improve their performance. Our ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations alongside with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray nanotomography inspection revealed that the small amount of added graphene could effectively enhance the microstructure of the PAN/graphene CFs. Compared to the PAN controlsample, PAN/graphene-0.075 CF demonstrated a ~225% increase in tensile strength and ~184% increase in Young’s modulus.

Unveiling graphene role in pan/graphene composite fiber: Combination of atomistic scale simulation and experimental characterization

2019 Fall National Meeting

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