• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.281-287
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• 2023

Environmental pollution from waste and the climate crisis, due to rising global average temperatures, are reaching critical levels threatening human survival. Research is ongoing across various fields to solve this problem, with a key focus on developing eco-friendly, carbon-neutral materials. Our study aimed to integrate natural fibers, known for their environmentally friendly properties and lower carbon emissions, with carbon fibers. In general, combining high-strength and low-strength materials results in intermediate properties. However, we found that certain properties in our study exceeded those of typical carbon fiber composite materials. To validate this, we produced both carbon fiber composite materials and carbon fiber/natural fiber hybrid composite materials. We then compared their mechanical properties using a range of specific tests. Our results revealed that the hybrid composite material exhibited superior bending strength and fracture toughness compared to the carbon fiber composite material. We also identified the underlying mechanisms contributing to this strength enhancement. This breakthrough suggests that the use of hybrid composite materials may allow the production of stronger structures. Moreover, this can play a significant role in mitigating environmental pollution and the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions, a major contributing factor to these global challenges.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 1992

In this study, the variation of fatigue strength in CF/PEEK and CF/EPOXY, the matrix and interfacial strength of which differ from each other, has been studied from the viewpoint of microfracture behavior. The results obtained are as follows; According as the fatigue strength moves from the lower cycle range to the higher cycle range, that of CF/PEEK shows higher curve than that of CF/EPOXY does. In the early stage of fatigue life, the characteristic of fatigue crack in CF/PEEK is mainly the fracture of longitudinal fiber, while that in CF/EPOXY is the fracture of transverse fiber. The difference of fatigue strength in these materials can be explained by the fracture criteria of transverse fiber and longitudinal fiber.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.237-244
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• 2000

Phenolic resin used as a precursor of carbonized matrix for carbon-carbon composites was modified by addition of molybdenum disilicide (MoSi$_2$) in various concentrations of 0, 4, 12 and 20% by weight to improve the anti-oxidation properties of the composites. The green body was manufactured by a prepreg method and was submitted to carbonization up to 110$0^{\circ}C$. In this work, the oxidation behavior of carbon-carbon composites with MoSi$_2$ as an oxidation inhibitor was investigated at the temperature range of 600-100$0^{\circ}C$ in an air environment. The carbon-carbon composites with MoSi$_2$ showed a significantly improved oxidation resistance due to both the reduction of the porosity formation and the formation of mobile diffusion barrier for oxygen when compared to those without MoSi$_2$. Carbon active sites should be blocked, decreasing the oxidation rate of carbon. This is probably due to the effect of the inherent MoSi$_2$ properties, resulted from a formation of the protective layer against oxygen attack in the composites studied.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 2003

DC and AC electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of milled carbon fiber/nylon composites were investigated with the kind of nylon matrix. Percolation transition at which the conductivity is sharply increased was observed at about 7 vol% of milled carbon fiber. Nylon 46 as a matrix was more effective to obtain high electrical conductivity than nylon 6, and the difference in conductivity was occurred by the treatment of coupling agent. Frequency dependence of AC conductivity could be explained by relaxation phenomenon at just below percolation and resonance phenomenon at 40 vol% of carbon fiber, respectively. Negative temperature coefficient phenomenon was found in all composites. Electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness was increased with the concentration of carbon fiber. At a high conductivity region the return loss was more dominant to the total shielding effectiveness than the absorption loss.

• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.38-44
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• 2004

The electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is very essential for commercial and military purposes. We fabricated multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)/epoxy composites and studied the electromagnetic characteristics of the composites before we study the characteristics of MWNT-added glass fiber-reinforced composites. After setting up the fabrication process, we measured the permittivity of MWNT/epoxy composites with process variables and MWNT concentrations in X-band (8.2GHz~12.4GHz). We also observed re-aggregation phenomenon of MWNTs and investigated its effect on the permittivity. The permittivity of the composites was influenced by the degree of dispersion of MWNTs and increased almost linearly as MWNT concentration increases.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.415-420
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• 2020

The interfacial properties in carbon fiber composites, which control the overall mechanical properties of the composites, are very important. Effective interface enhancement work is conducted on the modification of the carbon fiber surface with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Nonetheless, most surface modifications methods do have their own drawbacks such as high temperatures with a range of 600~1000℃, which should be implemented for CNT growth on carbon fibers that can cause carbon fiber damages affecting deterioration of composites properties. This study includes the use of in-situ interfacial polymerization of polyamide 610/CNT to fabricate the carbon fiber composites. The process is very fast and continuous and can disperse CNTs with random orientation in the interface resulting in enhanced interfacial properties. Scanning electron microscopy was conducted to investigate the CNT dispersion and composites morphology, and the thermal stability of the composites was analyzed via thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, fiber pull-out tests were used to assess interfacial strength between fiber and matrix.

• Composites Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 2003

In this work, the effect of molybdenum disilicide(MoSi$_2$) content on the impact properties of carbon-carbon composites(C/C composites) was investigated in the presence of MoSi$_2$. The content of MoSi$_2$ was varied in 0, 4, 12 and 20 wt% on the basis of resin matrix for anti-oxidation properties of the composites under high temperature. As a result, the composites made with MoSi$_2$ resulted in an increase of interfacial adhesion between fibers and matrix, which could improve the impact properties of the composites. Especially, 12 wt% Mosi$_2$ composites showed the highest impact properties in the present system. This was probably due to the existence of brittle-to-ductile transition(BDT) properties of MoSi$_2$ in the vicinity of 90$0^{\circ}C$, resulting from increasing the interfacial adhesion force among fibers, filler, and matrix in the composites.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.363-369
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• 2013

In this work, the effects of ozone treatments on mechanical interfacial properties of carbon fibers-reinforced nylon-6 matrix composites were investigated. The surface properties of ozone treated carbon fibers were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Mechanical interfacial properties of the composites were investigated using critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$). The cross-section morphologies of ozone-treated carbon fiber/nylon-6 composites were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). As a result, $K_{IC}$ of the ozone-treated carbon fibers-reinforced composites showed higher values than those of as-received carbon fibers-reinforced composites due the enhanced $O_{1s}/C_{1s}$ ratio of the carbon fiber by the ozone treatments. This result concludes that the mechanical interfacial properties of nylon-6 matrix composites can be controlled by suitable ozone treatments on the carbon fibers.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.243-248
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• 2016

Although thermoset carbon fiber composite bipolar plates not only have high mechanical properties but also high corrosion resistance in acid environment, high manufacturing cost and low bulk electrical conductivity are the biggest obstacle to overcome. In this research, thermoplastic polymer is employed for the matrix of carbon composite bipolar plate to increase both the manufacturing productivity and bulk electric conductivity of the bipolar plate. In order to increase the electrical conductivity and strength, plain type carbon fabric rather than chopped or unidirectional fibers is used. Also nano particles are embedded in the thermoplastic matrix to increase the bulk resistance of the bipolar plate. The area specific resistance and the mechanical strength of the developed bipolar plate are measured with respect to the environmental temperature and stack compaction pressure.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.422-428
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• 2023

The electrical contact resistance between the bipolar plate (BP) and the carbon felt electrode (CFE), which are in contact by the stack clamping pressure, has a great impact on the stack efficiency because of the relatively low clamping pressure of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) stack. In this study, a polyethylene (PE) composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate structure is developed through a local heat welding process to reduce such contact resistance and improve cell performance. The PE matrix of the carbon fiber composite BP is locally melted to create a direct contact structure between the carbon fibers of CFE and the carbon fibers of BP, thereby reducing the electrical contact resistance. Area specific resistance (ASR) and gas permeability are measured to evaluate the performance of the PE composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate. In addition, an acid aging test is performed to measure stack reliability. Finally, a VFRB unit cell charge/discharge test is performed to compare and analyze the performance of the developed PE composite-CFE hybrid BP and the conventional BP.