THERMAL BEHAVIOR DURING FRACTURE OF HYBRID EPOXY/CNT/GNP COMPOSITES

This work reports the distinct thermal signatures during failure of epoxy-based nanocomposites comprised of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MW-CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). These fillers individually alter the material properties, but their synergy dramatically improves mechanical performance and other multifunctionality. CNT/epoxy, GNP/epoxy nanocomposites are fabricated and compared with the mixed GNP/CNT/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites containing the same weight percentage. Temperature profiles during tension tests have been observed using an infrared thermography (IR) camera yielding distinctive temperature profiles.
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