• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.1037-1046
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• 2016

In this study, to enhance the electrical insulation of composite specimens in addition to the improved mechanical properties, the epoxy composite were reinforced with carbon nanotubes and silica particles. Tensile strength, Young's modulus, dynamic mechanical behavior, and electrical resistivity of the specimens were measured with varied contents of the two fillers. The mechanical and electrical properties were discussed, and the experimental results related to the mechanical properties of the specimens were compared with those from several micromechanics models. The hybrid composites specimens with 0.6 wt％ of carbon nanotubes and 50 wt％ of silica particles showed improved mechanical properties, with increase in tensile strength and Young's modulus up to 11％ and 35％, respectively, with respect to those of the baseline specimen. The electrical conductivity of the composite specimens with carbon nanotubes filler also improved. Further, the electrical insulation of the hybrid composites specimens with the two fillers improved in addition to the improvement in mechanical properties.

• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2010

In order to increase the electrical conductivity and the mechanical properties of carbon fabric composites, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were deposited on carbon fabrics by anodic and cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD) processes. In the cathodic EPD, carbon nano-particles and nano-sized Cu particles were simultaneously deposited on the carbon fabric, which gave a synergetic effect on the enhancement of properties as well as the degree of deposition. The hybridization of carbon nano-particles and micron-sized carbon fiber significantly improved the through-the-thickness electrical conductivity. In addition, both MWCNTs and CNFs were deposited onto the carbon fabric for multi-scale hybrid composites. Multi-scale deposition improved the through-the-thickness electrical conductivity, compared to the deposition of either MWCNTs or CNFs.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2014

Multi-walled carbon nanotube reinforced epoxy composites were fabricated using shear mixing and sonication. The mechanical, viscoelastic, thermal, and electrical properties of the fabricated specimens were measured and evaluated. From the images and the results of the measurements of tensile strengths, the specimens having 0.6 wt% nanotube content showed better dispersion and higher strength than those of the other specimens. The Young's moduli of the specimens increased as the nanotube filler content was increased in the matrix. As the concentrations of nanotubes filler were increased in the composite specimens, their storage and loss moduli also tended to increase. The specimen having a nanotube filler content of 0.6 wt% showed higher thermal conductivity than that of the other specimens. On the other hand, in the measurement of thermal expansion, specimens having 0.4 and 0.6 wt% filler contents showed a lower value than that of the other specimens. The electrical conductivities also increased with increasing content of nanotube filler. Based on the measured and evaluated properties of the composites, it is believed that the simple and efficient fabrication process used in this study was sufficient to obtain improved properties in the specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.3-9
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• 2013

Aluminum Oxide($Al_2O_3$) ceramics are excellent candidates for such applications due to their outstanding mechanical, thermal, and tribological properties. However, they are difficult to machine using conventional mechanical methods. Carbon fillers, such as carbon nanotubes(CNT) and graphene nanoplatelets(GNP)can be dispersed in a ceramic matrix to improve the mechanical and electrical properties. In this study, CNT and Graphene reinforced hybrid ceramic composites were fabricated using the spark plasma sintering method at a temperature of $1,500^{\circ}C$, pressure of 40 MPa, and soaking time of 10min. Besides this, the material properties such as microstructure, crystal structure, hardness, and electrical conductivity were analyzed using FE-SEM, XRD, Vickers, and the 4-point probe method. A micro machining test was carried out to compare the effects of the material properties and the machining performance for CNT and Graphene reinforced ceramic composites.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.209-219
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• 2009

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown great potential for the reinforcement of polymers or fiber-reinforced composites. In this study, mechanical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-filled plain-weave glass/epoxy composites intended for use in radar absorbing structures were evaluated with regard to filler loading, microstructure, and fiber volume fraction. The plain-weave composites containing MWNTs exhibited improved matrix-dominant and interlaminar fracture-related properties, that is, compressive and interlaminar shear strength. This is attributed to strengthening of the matrix rich region and the interface between glass yarns by the MWNTs. However, tensile properties were only slightly affected by the addition of MWNTs, as they are fiber-dominant properties.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.240-249
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• 2014

Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) composites are studied. To increase the interfacial interactions between PET and MWNTs, the MWNTs are functionalized with bishydroxy-ethylene-terephthalate (BHET). The functionalized MWNTs are melt blended into PET matrix using a twin screw extruder. The amount of MWNTs loaded in PET matrix ranges from 0.5 to 2.0 wt%. After compounding and spinning, the filaments are post-drawn and annealed. To verify the chemical modifications of carbon nanotubes, Raman, $^1H$ NMR, XPS, TGA and FE-SEM are used. The nanocomposites are also analyzed with DSC, TGA, and UTM. These tests show that crystallization temperature and thermal degradation temperature increase due to the functionalized MWNTs. Also, tensile test shows that yield strength and toughness increase more than 30% with addition of only 1 wt% of MWNTs. These results show that the introduction of BHET onto the MWNTs is a very effective way in manufacturing MWNT/PET composite.

• Carbon letters
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.320-324
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• 2009

We investigated the effect of diameter and content of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the physical properties of styrenebutadiene rubber (SBR)/CNTs nanocomposites. CNTs-reinforced SBR nanocomposites were prepared by the melt mixing process. CNTs with different diameters were synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition method (CVD). In this work, the mechanical property and other physical properties of SBR/CNTS nanocomposites were discussed as a function of the content and diameter of CNTs.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.306-314
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• 2016

In this study, to improve the thermal stabilities of the epoxy composite specimens in addition to the enhanced mechanical properties, those were reinforced with carbon nanotubes and micrometer-sized silica particles. To disperse the filler in matrix relatively simple physical process, specimens were fabricated using shear mixing and sonication. Tensile strength, coefficients of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of the specimens were measured with varied contents of the two fillers. The mechanical and thermal properties were also discussed, and the experimental results of thermal expansion related to the thermal stability of the specimens were compared with those from several micromechanics models. The hybrid composites specimens incorporating 0.6 wt％ of carbon nanotubes and 50 wt％ of silica particles showed better mechanical properties than the others with increase in tensile strength up to 11％, with respect to those of the baseline specimens. As the silica contents were increased the thermal expansion was reduced down to 36%, and the thermal stability was improved with the decreased thermal deformation. Thermal conductivity of the epoxy composite specimens incorporating 50 wt％ of silica particles was enhanced, which demonstrate improvement of 72%. The mechanical and thermal properties of the hybrid composites specimens incorporating the two fillers were improved simultaneously.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.825-834
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• 2014

This manuscript presents an experimental investigation on the effect of Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) addition on the tensile, flexural and impact properties of woven Kevlar fabric reinforced epoxy composites. MWCNTs were dispersed in the epoxy resin by sonication technique and the samples were fabricated by hand layup laminating procedure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the microstructure of produced samples. The effects of adding small amounts (${\leq}1%$) of MWCNT on the tensile, flexural and impact (Izod) behaviors of laminated composites were analyzed. Results revealed that MWCNTs enhanced the Young's modulus up to 20%, bending modulus up to 40%, and impact strength up to 45% in comparison with woven Kevlar fabric/epoxy composites. It was found that the maximum improvements in mechanical properties were happened for 0.5 wt.% MWCNT.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2018

In this paper, the effect of matrix cracks on the buckling of a hybrid laminated plate is investigated. The plate is composed of carbon nanotube reinforced functionally graded (CNTR-FG) layers and conventional fiber reinforced composite (FRC) layers. Different distributions of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) through the thickness of layers are considered. The cracks are modeled as aligned slit cracks across the ply thickness and transverse to the laminate plane, and the distribution of cracks is assumed statistically homogeneous corresponding to an average crack density. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is employed to incorporate the effects of rotary inertia and transverse shear deformation, and the meshless kp-Ritz method is used to obtain the buckling solutions. Detailed parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of matrix crack density, CNTs distributions, CNT volume fraction, plate aspect ratio and plate length-to-thickness ratio, boundary conditions and number of layers on buckling behaviors of hybrid laminated plates containing CNTR-FG layers.