Carbon fiber/epoxy composites: effect of zinc sulphide coated carbon nanotube on thermal and mechanical properties

In this study, composites based on carbon fiber and a modified epoxy resin were obtained. The modification on the polymeric matrix was performed by adding functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated with zinc sulphide particles (MWCNT-ZnS), synthetized by hydrothermal synthesis assisted by microwave. For comparison, samples containing only functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTf) were also tested. The influences on chemical, structural, mechanical, and thermal properties of the composites were evaluated. For the filler characterization, X-ray diffraction, transmission electronic microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used. The modified polymeric matrix was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis and the mechanical evaluation of the carbon fiber laminated composites was made by tensile and impact tests. The results showed that the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the composites increased with the presence of carbon nanofillers. The absorbed energy on impact had higher values for the composites modified with MWCNTf. It was verified that the samples containing MWCNTf-ZnS were more thermally stable, mainly due to the ZnS particles coating the MWCNTf surface.