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Abstract: This paper reports the fabrication and mechanical properties of hybrid multi-scale epoxy composites reinforced with conventional carbon fiber (CF) fabrics surface-attached with electrospun carbon nanofiber (ECN) mats. The ECNs were prepared via thermal treatments of polyacrylonitrile copolymer nanofibers, which were produced by the electrospinning technique and collected as overlaid mats on the T300 CF fabrics. The ECN-CF fabrics/mats were used as innovative reinforcement fillers for the fabrication of hybrid multi-scale composites (with SC-15 epoxy resin) through the composite-manufacturing technique of vacuum assisted resin transfer molding. Three-point bending test and short-beam shear test were carried out to evaluate the strengthening/toughening effects of ECNs on mechanical properties of the novel composites. The results indicated that out-of-plane mechanical properties of the ECN-CF/epoxy composites were considerably higher than the control sample of traditional CF/epoxy composites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, hybrid multi-scale composites were developed from glass microfiber fabrics (GFs) and nano-epoxy resins containing electrospun glass nanofibers (EGNFs). The hypothesis was that, through dispersing a small amount of EGNFs into epoxy resin, mechanical properties (particularly out-of-plane mechanical properties) of the resulting hybrid multi-scale composites would be significantly improved. The composites were fabricated by the technique of vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM). The interlaminar shear strength, flexural properties, impact absorption energy, and tensile properties of the composites were evaluated, and the results were compared to those acquired from GFs/epoxy composite as well as GFs/epoxy composites containing chopped glass microfibers (GMFs); additionally, the reinforcement and/or toughening mechanisms were investigated. The study revealed that the nano-epoxy resin with 0.25wt.% of EGNFs resulted in substantial improvements on mechanical properties of the resulting hybrid multi-scale composites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]