Preparing Of Polysulfone/MWNTs Hybrid Nanofibers And The Synergy Effects Toughened And Reinforced Epoxy

It is well known that epoxy and carbon fiber/epoxy composites widely used in aircraft and aerospace. However, the compostes have a limitation of toughness due to inherent brittleness of epoxy. So many works have been carried out to toughen epoxy matrix and carbon fiber/epoxy composites. Traditional toughening methods are deficient, which different to achieve synergistic effect of toughness, strength and heat resistance. Considering the toughness effect of PSF and the reinforcement effect of MWNTs in polymer and composte, the novel method to tough and reinforce the epoxy resin by using electrospinning hybrid MWNTs-EP/PSF nanofibers membrane was explored in the paper. The Epoxy resin was contributed to surface of MWNTs by chemical reaction. The PSF nanofibers with different concentration of MWNTs-EP were prepared by electrospinning, the nanofibers were collected with roller. The epoxy matrix were reinforced and toughened by loading 2 wt % MWNTs-EP/PSF hybrid nanofibers.The MWNTs were treated with the mixture acid of H2SO4 and HNO3 to attach carboxylic acid groups to the surface. The carboxylated MWNTs were father reacted with Epoxy-828, the TPP was used as a catalyst for the reaction. The MWNTs-EP were analyzed by Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR),Transmission electron microscopy (TEM),Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and compared to the MWNTs untreated. The results show that the Epoxy-828 was successfully contributed to the surface of MWNTs, the dispersion of MWNTs-EP in organic solvents was improved. The MWNTs-EP/PSF hybrid nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning, the nanofibers were analyzed by SEM,TEM and Random, Experimental results showed that the diameters of the nanofibers were reduced with increasing MWNTs-EP contents, and the MWNTs-EP were embedded dispersally into the nanofibers, and the orientation of PSF nanofibers were improved with increasing MWNTs-EP concentration.The 2wt% MWNTs-EP/PSF hybrid nanofibers toughened and reinforced epoxy resin with different MWNTs-EP contents were prepared, and compared the mechanical and thermal properties to those of PSF nanofibers toughened epoxy and pure resin matrix. The tensile strength of toughened and reinforced epoxy exhibited increase of 13.1%,18.4%,23.5%,34.2%,43.8% by loading MWNTs-EP/PSF nanofibers with lwt%,3wt%,5wt%,10wt%,15wt% MWNTs-EP content, respectively, which were higher than those of epoxy resin toughened with the same content of PSF nanofibers. The epoxy resin toughed and reinforced with MWNTs-EP/PSF hybrid nanofibers with 5wt% MWNTs-EP has the highest K(?)c.Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) showed the glass transition temperature (Tg) of MWNTs-EP/PSF hybrid nanofibers toughened and reinforced epoxy increased by 10℃compared to that of epoxy matrix toughed by pure PSF nanofibers. SEM observations of toughened and reinforced epoxy showed that PSF spheres resulting from the inhomogeneous phase separation were aligned in random orientation and MWNTs-EP at different sites were dispersed in epoxy matrix or PSF spheres.