Saeedeh Saadatayar - Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Hosain Beheshty - Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute Tehran, Iran
Razi Sahraeian - Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute Tehran, Iran

Prepregs of Carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy composites (CFEC) containing COOH- functionalized multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) were fabricated by hand lay-up and compression hot press techniques. MWCNT at different content (0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 phr) were dispersed by ultrasonic into Epikote 828 epoxy resin. In this study, the effect of MWCNT content level was investigated on flexural and transverse tensile mechanical properties, including elastic modulus, ultimate strength and strain at failure. The results show that samples with 0.1 phr MWCNT loading demonstrated the optimum improvement by 6%, 4% and 7.7% increase in flexural strength, modulus and deflection at break and 28%, 25% and 14% increase in transverse tensile strength (30.6 MPa), modulus (8.5 GPa) and strain at break, respectively. Fracture morphology studied by scanning electron microscopy and showed better interfacial bonding in the CNT-reinforced CFEC.

carbon fiber, carbon nanotube, epoxy resin, composites