Efficient electrophoretic deposition of an intensification process to enhance the mechanical properties of glass fibre reinforced polymer

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2021.108298Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Electrophoretic deposition method was used to coat the graphene nanoplatelets over the Glass fiber.

  • Interfacial Mechanical property has been achieved.

  • XRD and RS analysis has confirmed the existence of graphene in the composites.

  • Tensile strength and flexural modulus have increased compared to undoped GF.

Abstract

Nanoparticles are being used nowadays to improve the mechanical properties of Fiber Reinforced polymers. In this study, the Graphene nanoplatelets were coated on the Glass fiber by Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to enhance its interfacial mechanical properties and to establish the influence of electric field strength and process duration on the quality of deposition. The Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) with mean particle size of 25 μm were dispersed in ethanol where the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate as a surfactance is deposited on Glass fiber substratesby an electrophoretic procedurefollowed under 100 V of DC voltage for 30 min. The enhancements in the mechanical properties were strongly depending on how well the nanoparticles dispersed and this has been proved in SEM morphology characterization. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of Graphene composition in the composites. Subsequently, the coated glass fiber lamina was laminated using compression moulding technique. Thereby its mechanical behaviour was analyzed by tensile test, flexural (3 Point bending) test and interfacial shear stress(IFSS) test. Finally, the results demonstrate that the electrophoretic deposition is the superior technique for coating the nanoparticles for homogeneous composition, which potentially improve the mechanical properties, particularly interfacial strength up to 78.42 MPa for different applications.

Introduction

Composites are extensively used in both aerospace and automobile industry due to its high mechanical performance, good fatigue properties when compared with other traditional materials, higher stiffness to weight ratio, resistance to fatigue and environmental damage provides flexibility for complex design which is light in weight [[1], [2], [3]]. These superior properties have motivated the aerospace industry to use composite material for different applications [4]. Recently, the nanocomposite materials have been proposed for different applications due to its adequate properties such as high hardness and wear resistance, low specific gravity, the capability of withstanding at extremely high temperature and different operational conditions and more stable in its mechanical properties, at very high temperature without oxidation [[5], [6], [7]]. The nanomaterials in the polymer composites offer enhanced properties such as electrical, thermal, mechanical and this triology can be used for different applications like heat resistance, sensing poisoned gas, thermal management, microwave absorption, photoemission, energy storage and in-situ monitoring [8]. This can be achieved by different conventional conductive fillers such as metal powder, carbonaceous materials like carbon black, CNF/CNT and graphene. Since, after the discovery of graphene the worldwide interest on this material has increased due to its multi-functional properties such as thermal conductivity in the range of 6000 W/mK [9], high modulus (∼1 T Pa) [10], good electrical conductivity [11], large surface area [12], good strain sensor [13], energy storage [14] and super capacitor [15]. The mechanical properties of graphene and graphene flakes were exhibited by Dimitrios et al. [16] which has remarkable applications in various fields.

However, these nanoparticles have the superior feature which can obtain their maximum benefits for our applications from those nanoparticles is to determine the optimized dispersion technique which is a difficult task due to its surface area where the agglomeration will occur [17]. The agglomeration of nanomaterials in the polymer matrix leads to low down its mechanical property, that which can be prevented by dispersing surfactant to the polymer matrix [18], Finding appropriate solvent for dispersing nano fillers [19], by using impregnation technique, the nanomaterials were frozen in moulds which injected to the polymer matrix resin [20], and by using surface modification technique [21]. In order to achieve the maximum benefits from nanomaterials to the fiber reinforced polymer, there is a need to improve the homogeneous dispersion of nanomaterials in the polymer matrices at different concentration and many kinds of research were reported about it. Enormous methods have been proposed for coating the nanomaterial on the glass fiber to improve its interfacial interaction like oxidation treatment [22], discharge plasma treatment [23], chemical grating [24], chemical vapour deposition (CVD) [25], sizing [26] and electrophoresis deposition [27], soaking [28] and dip coating process [29]. However, there are certain limitations found in the above discussed methods. The limitations such as catalyst contamination, agglomeration, degrading the mechanical properties of the glass fiber during high temperature and improper deposition during CVD [30]. To address these limitations, an optimized EPD technique developed for controlled and uniform deposition of graphene on the glass fiber. Therefore, in this present work an EPD setup has been designed with two different electrodes hanging into the deposition tank from the wood stand. Glass fiber layers are placed near to the negative electrode to get deposited. D.C. power source (100 V) was applied in the electrolytic suspension of GNP-Ethanol from electrodes. The obtained deposited layers are cured and studied for material characterizations by SEM, XRD and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Further these cured layers are laminated and tested for mechanical characterizations were analysed by tensile, flexural (3 Point bending) and interfacial shear strength (IFSS) tests.

Section snippets

Materials

Brass plates (Thickness: 1 mm) and copper plates (Thickness: 1 mm) were taken from Sudha& Co. (India). Graphene nanoplatelets (Particle size: 25 μm, Surface area: 50-80 m2/g) obtained from Sigma Aldrich (Bangalore, India), Ethanol (C2H5OH, AR Grade: 99.9 %) purchased from Changshu Hongsheng Fine Chemicals Co Ltd., (CHINA), Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (AR, ACS: 99 %) acquired from Sisco Research Laboratories Pvt Ltd., (Mumbai, India), Araldite© LY556 (Epoxy value: 5.30–5.45 eq/Kg), Aradur® HY951

Material characterizations

Field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis performed to probe the morphology; particle size and deposited coating of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) on to the GFRP samples were prepared as per the standards (15 mm × 15 mm). The analysis carried out by the VEGA 3 TESCANmicroscope, approx.7 nm thick layer of gold coated on the samples before observation. Magnified with a magnification of 1.00 kX.

X-ray diffraction performed to characterize the crystalline materials, purity, identification

FESEM

FESEM image provides the sure evidence for the presence of graphene nanoplatelets, which covers the glass fiber as shown in Fig. 4. Each and every individual glass fiber wrapped with graphene is shown in Fig. 4(c). The diameter of the fiber will increase further by increasing the EPD cycle by repeating the number of depositions, and more graphene platelets will be deposited on the surface. SEM image of glass fiber coated with grapheme nanoplatelets, 2 wt. % of GNP was coated to achieve higher

Conclusion

In this study, GNP suspended in ethanol was successfully deposited on GF through EPD technique under varying deposition voltage. The obtained GF lamina coated with GNP was quite uniform and homogeneous throughout its surface area which is proved in the morphology study. This leads to an increase in the interfacial strength between the fiber and the epoxy matrix. In addition to this, both the XRD and Raman Spectra peaks reveal that the presence of GNP on the glass fiber lamina, increase the

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This project has been supported by Dr. Revathi Rani (Materials Science Group, IGCAR, India) and Mr. Perumal (Electrical Machines Lab, HITS) which are gratefully acknowledged.

References (32)

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