Effects of cellulose nanofiber content on impact properties of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites with the cellulose nanofiber dispersion layer

Abstract

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are environmentally friendly materials with a high specific strength. To enhance the impact properties of the carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs), a method for inserting a CNF dispersion layer between prepregs was developed. By using an aqueous solution of epoxy resin, the hydrophobic treatment of CNF became unnecessary. In this study, CFRP with CNF dispersion layers was fabricated with different CNF content. The impact energy absorbed by the CFRP specimen was increased with the increasing CNF content, and the Charpy impact value increased up to a maximum of 21% by the CNF dispersion layers.

Highlights

• Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) specimens with the cellulose nanofiber (CNF) dispersion layer were fabricated.

• The specimens were fabricated by varying the content of CNF.

• Impact energy absorbed by the CFRP specimen was increased with increased CNF content.

• Charpy impact value increased up to 21%; optimum ductility index value was clarified.

Keywords:

• CFRP
• cellulose nanofiber
• hydrophobic treatment
• electrodeposition
• impact properties
• epoxy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kazuhiro Kume, Mizuno Corporation, Takayuki Hayashi, Daiichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd., Japan, and Daio Paper Co., Ltd., Japan.

Declaration of interests

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.

Credit author statement

Kazuaki Katagiri: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, investigation, project administration, writing – review & editing; Naoko Kishimoto: data analysis, writing – review & editing; Toshihiko Okumura: methodology, data curation, investigation; Sonomi Kawakita: data curation, investigation; Shinya Honda: methodology, writing – review & editing; Katsuhiko Sasaki: methodology, writing – review & editing, supervision.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20H02039.