Modification Of Carbon Fiber/BMI Composites By Using Functionalized Graphene Oxide

As a novel two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, graphene is considered to be the most promising nanomaterials in the 21 st century due to its excellent mechanical, electrical, thermal characteristics. Recently, graphene has been widely used in polymer modification. In this paper, the graphene oxides(GO) were prepared by using the modified Hummers method, and then the surface of graphene oxide was modified to obtain maleic anhydride functionalized graphene oxide(MAH-GO). The results showed that the chemical bonding between MAH-GO and resin matrix was realized. Moreover, the GO and MAH-GO were used to modify the properties of bismaleimide(BMI) nanocomposites and carbon fiber/BMI composites respectively. The action mechanism of MAH-GO in the composites was also investigated.The study revealed that the maleic anhydride was grafted successfully onto the GO surface. Compared with GO, MAH-GO has lower regularity, smaller particle size, larger lamellar spacing, and better dispersibility in the solution. The mechanical properties of BMI resin and carbon fiber composites significantly increased with the addition of MAH-GO, and thermal stability of BMI resin was also improved. When the filler content was 0.1wt%, the impact strength and tensile strength of MAH-GO/BMI composite increased by 77.28% and 29.29%, respectively, comparing to pure resin. On comparison with BMI/carbon fiber composite, the interlinear shear strength and flexural strength of MAH-GO/BMI/carbon fiber composite increased by 28.67% and 49.66% respectively when the MAH-GO content was 0.15wt%.