Fabrication of Nano-composites and Testing of their Mechanical Properties

Date : Jun 2016 - Jun 2017

The main objective of this research work was to investigate the ability of Graphene nano-platelets (GNP’s) to improve the mechanical properties of conventional glass reinforced epoxy polymer composites (GREPC). In this research work simple composites were fabricated and then nanocomposites with different wt. % of GNP’s in the epoxy. The graphene platelets were incorporated between the layers of twill weave glass fabric reinforced epoxy polymer composites using hand lay-up techniques. To overcome the problem of agglomeration with nanoparticles two different methods were used which include magnetic stirring and bath ultra-sonication. The GNP’s were dispersed in a specific amount of acetone and later on it was removed using stirring and heating. Three different tests which include tensile tests, bending and light weight charpy impact tests were conducted to investigate the effect of GNP’s in epoxy polymer for the improvement in mechanical properties of conventional glass reinforced epoxy polymer composites. Impact tests showed 37.5% improvement in impact strength and 30% in flexural strength for nano-composites comparatively conventional glass reinforced epoxy polymer composites with 0.5 wt. % of GNP’s in epoxy. Light weight charpy impact tests showed improved ability of energy absorbance of nano-composites due to interlaminar addition of GNP’s. At 2% wt. of GNP’s in epoxy matrix average tensile strength of conventional glass reinforced epoxy polymer composites improved by 14.8%. At the same weight percentage of GNP’s the average impact strength also improved by 32%. But averaged bending strength decreased by 27% at this percentage of GNP’s.