Preparation And Properties Of Basalt Fiber/Epoxy Composites Modified By One-dimensional Clay/Carbon

In this paper, clay/carbon nanocomposites were synthesized via a hydrothermal route using cellulose as carbon precursor and clay as template. Clay/carbon was uniformly incorporated into epoxy resin as nano-reinforcements to fabricate basalt fiber/epoxy (BF/EP) laminates to improve the interface bonding between fiber and epoxy resin. The effects of incorporating clay/carbon on the mechanical, thermo-mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of the basalt fiber/epoxy composites were investigated in this study. The main conclusions were described as follow:(1) BF/EP composites were fabricated via a compression molding process. The effects of press conditions such as pressure applying moment, shaping pressure and fiber volume content on the flexural properties and the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the BF/EP composites were investigated. The results showed that the curing cycle of the EP/DDM system was 80℃ for 2 h and then 160 ℃ for 4 h; the optimal pressure applying moment was 45 min; the shaping pressure and fiber volume content had effects on the flexural properties and ILSS properties of the composites; the flexural property and ILSS achieved optimal value when the shaping pressure was 1 MPa. The flexural strength and modulus achieved maximum when fiber volume content was 40 vol% and ILSS achieved maximum when fiber volume content was 30 vol%.(2) Halloysite/carbon (HNT/C) nano-composites were synthesized via a hydrothermal route. Amorphous carbon nanotubes (a-CNT) were also obtained by removing the clay template. HNT/C, a-CNT and HNT were uniformly incorporated into epoxy resin as nano-reinforcements to fabricate basalt fiber/epoxy composites. The effects of incorporating nano-reinforcements on the mechanical, thermo-mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of the basalt fiber/epoxy (BF/EP) composites were investigated in this study. Results showed that the reinforcing effect of HNT/C is much better than those of HNT and a-CNT. The incorporation of HNT/C (in which the mass ratio of cellulose to halloysite was 0.5) resulted in 18% and 40% increases in the flexural strength and modulus of the BF/EP composites respectively with respect to that of the BF/EP composites without additives. To improve the surface carbon content of HNT/C (in which the mass ratio of cellulose to halloysite was 1 and 2), the improvement of flexural properties of the composite is not obvious. The incorporation of HNT/C (in which the mass ratio of cellulose to halloysite was 0.5) resulted in 17% increases in the storage modulus of the BF/EP composites. The thermal conductivity of the BF/EP composites was improved by 169% relative to that of BF/EP without additives. These results indicated a synergistic effect of HNT and nano-carbon on the mechanical properties of BF/EP. Such synergistic effect promoted the dispersion of HNT/C in resin matrix, resulting in the better interface bonding between fiber and resin. Thus the mechanical properties and thermal properties of BF/EP were improved.(3) Attapulgite/carbon (PG/C) nanocomposites were synthesized via a hydrothermal route. Compared to that of BF/EP, the incorporation of PG/C (in which the mass ratio of cellulose to attapulgite was 0.5) resulted in 4%,11% and 6% increases in flexural strength, modulus and ILSS of the BF/EP composites respectively. The thermal conductivity of the BF/EP composites was improved by 65% relative to that of BF/EP without additives. However, the reinforcing effect of PG/C was much worse than those of HNT/C due to the carbon particle coated on the PG surface resulting in the worse dispersion of PG/C in the epoxy resin. Such worse dispersion of PG/C resulted in the low mechanical properties and thermal properties of the BF/EP composites.