Interfacial Toughening of Glass Fiber-Epoxy Composites using Electrospun Nanofibers

In the present research, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers produced by electrospinning method were employed to increase mechanical properties of glass fiber-epoxy composites, especially interlaminar shear strength. Morphological studies of the nanofibers and nanofibers on the uni-directional glass fibers showed nanofibers aresmooth without any beads and deposited randomly on the glass fiber surfaces. Mechanical studies indicated embedding nanofibers in fabricated composites leads to 24%, 28%, 42%, and 16% of tensile strength, bending strength,interlaminar shear strength, and impact absorption energy, respectively compare to results from control composite(without nanofibers). Fractographical analyses confirmed that embedding nanofibers in composites leads to tougher fracture during composite breakage

Keywords:

Epoxy composites , Interfacial toughening , Mechanical properties , Nanofibers