Aging Effects on the Mechanical Performance of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Table 2

Synergistic effect of fillers and aging on the performance of composites.

Fillers	Filler specifications	Reinforcement	Matrix	Type of aging	Test method/standard	Properties/remarks
Carbon nanofillers & MWCNTs [106]	CNF Avg dia 130 nm, Avg length 1.5 μm; CNT Avg dia 9.5 nm, Avg length 20 μm	—	Epoxy (RTM6, Hexcel)	Hydrothermal aging at 70°C for 4 weeks	3-point bending ASTM D790	Elastic modulus before aging 3.03 GPa and after aging 3.10 GPa
CNT grafted ceramic microfiber by CVD; 2 wt% [107]		Aluminoborosilicate fiber mats (ultra temp 391 fibers, Cotronics Corporation, areal density of 371 g/m^2)	Epoxy (RTM6, Hexcel)	Hydrothermal aging at 60°C for 90 days	3-point bending ASTM D790	Bending modulus before aging; After aging
ZnO nanoparticle at 10 wt% [108]	Particle size:  nm	—	Epoxy resin by Wuxi Resin Co., China	Water-heat water aging at 80°C for 105 days	Tensile test ASTM D3039	Tensile strength of ZnO added before aging  MPa; After aging; MPa
MWCNTat 0.5 wt% [109]	Surface-treated with sulfuric acid and nitric acid (3 : 1) MWCNTs were purchased (Zhongke Nano Materials Co., Ltd., Chengdu, China	Carbon fiber; Wt. 300 g/m^2; Thickness is 0.167 mm	Epoxy bisphenol-A E51 resin	Hydrothermal aging at 60°C; Acid & alkaline immersion	Tensile test ASTM D3039	Tensile modulus before  GPa; At  GPa; In  GPa; In  GPa; Tensile strength before aging; GPa; At  GPa; In  GPa; In  GPa
Nano clay at 2 wt% [109]	Surface-treated halloysite nanoclay (Mingchuang Materials Co., Ltd., Xi’an, China)	Carbon fiber; Wt. 300 g/m^2; Thickness is 0.167 mm	Epoxy bisphenol-A E51 resin	Hydrothermal aging at 60°C; Acid & alkaline immersion	Tensile test ASTM D3039; 3-point bending test; ASTM D7264 [110]	Tensile modulus before  GPa; at  GPa; In  GPa; In  GPa; Tensile strength before aging; GPa; at  GPa; In  GPa; In  GPa
Inorganic nano clay at 2 wt% [111]	Alkylammonium surfactant treated inorganic nanoclay I-28E from Sigma-Aldrich Co.; It has a large surface area of 750 m^2/g, density of 0.42 g/cc, thickness of 1 nm, and lateral dimension of several microns	Carbon fiber (4 harness satin weave, 3 K tow size, and 0.2286 mm thickness) was obtained from US Composites Inc.	SC-15 epoxy resin from Applied Poleramic Inc.	Seawater with 35 phr salinity for 12 months	Low-velocity impact characterization	Nanoclay-added CFRC had low water absorption (19%) as compared to conventional composite (21%) due to the barrier properties of nanoclay. It also showed overall better performance than conventional composite at different aging periods. However, increased period of aging showed catastrophic failure
Graphene nanoplatelets (5 wt%); &; CNTs (0.1 wt%) [112]	Thickness lower than 4 nm and 5 μm of lateral size were supplied by Cheap Tubes & CNTs NC7000 from nanocyl with  μm,  nm	—	Epoxy Araldite LY556 from Huntsman	Hydrothermal aging at 40°C	Thermomechanical analysis	Tg is the same for aged and unaged composite.; Aging decreases the modulus of hybrid composite ().
CNTs; GNPs; Carbon nanohorns (CNH) at 0.5 wt% [113]	CNT of diameter 10e20 nm and length of 10e30 mm were obtained from Cheap Tubes Inc.; GNP having a thickness of 3-10 nm were purchased from Redex Nano (Ghaziabad, India); CNH was synthesized in-house by using a DC arc discharge technique	—	Epoxy EP-415	Hydrothermal aging cycles; Each cycle with duration of 24 h for 12 weeks	Lap shear test ASTM D1002 [114]	Lap shear strength; MPa; Epoxy/ MPa; Epoxy/ MPa; Epoxy/ MPa