POLYMER ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBERS AS INTERLEAVES FOR ENANCHEMENT OF CFRP LAMINATES DELAMINATION RESISTANCE

Electrospinning process is a technique to produce nanoscale fibers that has evinced more interest in recent years due to its versatility and potential for applications in several applications. The mall size and the concomitant ultra-high specific surface area of electrospun nanofibers make them suitable for several applications, such as tissue engineering, biosensors, filtration and advanced polymer composites (1). In particular for carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) the huge specific surface area of electrospun nanofibers results in very large interfacial area between nanofibers and polymer matrix and therefore leads to substantial improvement of fiber-matrix interfacial interactions (2). This method is a valid alternative to nanofiller dispersion in the polymer matrix when its viscosity is a great problem in the processing such as in the case of resin transfer molding . In this work electrospun polysulfone nanofibers were prepared by solution and the obtained non-woven mat was used as interleave of a model carbon fiber-epoxy composite laminate. The impact of the electrospun mat on the cure kinetics of the resin was investigated with DSC calorimetric analysis and the thermal behaviour of the produced composite was studied with DMTA. The morphological analysis of the fractured surfaces of the laminate was also performed, evidencing the partial loss of the the continuity of the nanofibrous mat due to the possible occurring of phase separation phenomena.