Development of Self-Healing Carbon/Epoxy Composites with Optimized PAN/PVDF Core-Shell Nanofibers as Healing Carriers

Naga Kumar C; Prabhakar M N; Mohamad Tarmizie Hassim; Jung-Il Song

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c05496

Development of Self-Healing Carbon/Epoxy Composites with Optimized PAN/PVDF Core-Shell Nanofibers as Healing Carriers

ACS Omega. 2022 Nov 9;7(46):42396-42407. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c05496. eCollection 2022 Nov 22.

Authors

Naga Kumar C¹, Prabhakar M N², Mohamad Tarmizie Hassim³, Jung-Il Song¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon 51140, Gyeongsangnam, South Korea.
² The Research Institute of Mechatronics, Changwon National University, Changwon 51140, Gyeongsangnam, South Korea.
³ Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon 51140, Gyeongsangnam, South Korea.

Abstract

Two-component self-healing carbon/epoxy composites were fabricated by incorporating healing agents between to carbon fiber laminates via the vacuum bagging method. Vinyl ester (VE), cobalt naphthalene (CN), and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) were encapsulated in a polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) shell via co-axial electrospinning. Varying nanofiber compositions were fabricated, namely, 10, 20, 30, and 40% PAN in PVDF nanofibers. The 20% PAN fibers were finalized as the shell material owing to their superior tensile properties and surface morphology. The behavior of the PAN/PVDF nanofibers encapsulating the healing agents was studied via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to affirm the presence of the healing agents. Mechanical analysis in the presence of core-shell nanofibers indicated an enhancement of 7 and 5% in flexural strength and Izod impact strength, respectively. Three-point bending tests confirmed the autonomous healing characteristics of these nanofibers, which retained 62% of their initial strength after 24 h. FESEM and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses of the fracture surface confirmed that the resin was released from the nanofibers, restoring the initial properties of the composites.