Mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanotube/epoxy/glass-fiber composites intended for nondestructive testing

Abstract

In this study, ternary polymer composites sheets comprising glass fiber (GF) reinforced epoxy with various fractions of carbon nanotubes (CNT) were manufactured using hot-pressing technology. A multiscale morphology analysis was presented using scanning electron microscopy. The thermal behavior of the glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) was investigated using thermogravimetric analysis, DSC, and DMA, which indicated an application temperature up to 71°C for the composites. Mechanical uniaxial stretching and three-points bending tests showed that the addition of 0.1–0.2 wt% CNT decreased the dissipated energy of the specimen by 50% and increased the Young's modulus by more than 100%. During all stretching and bending measurements, the relative change in electrical resistance (RCR) was recorded as function of strain, revealing a relationship between the electrical signal and the applied deformation of the GFRP. Finally, the standard equation for fitting RCR versus strain was optimized, reducing the number of fitting parameters from five to three. The electrical and mechanical properties of the CNT/GF/epoxy composites show that they are suitable sensoring materials for wind-turbine blades and other glass-fiber reinforced epoxy constructions, especially for nondestructive testing.