Repetitive self-healing of Diels-Alder grafted graphene nanoplatelet reinforced carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites with outstanding mechanical properties

Nazrul Islam Khan; Sudipta Halder; M S Goyat; Lakshi Nandan Borah; Subhankar Das

doi:10.1039/d2sm01558g

Repetitive self-healing of Diels-Alder grafted graphene nanoplatelet reinforced carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites with outstanding mechanical properties

Soft Matter. 2023 May 3;19(17):3121-3135. doi: 10.1039/d2sm01558g.

Authors

Nazrul Islam Khan¹, Sudipta Halder², M S Goyat³, Lakshi Nandan Borah², Subhankar Das⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Delhi 110078, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar 788010, India. shalder@mech.nits.ac.in.
³ Department of Applied Science, School of Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun 248007, India. goyatmanjeetsingh@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248007, India.

PMID: 37039535
DOI: 10.1039/d2sm01558g

Abstract

The concept of using bio-inspired healing mechanisms in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-based laminated composites is one of the trending areas of research for lightweight high-performance materials. To introduce self-healing in laminated composites, we developed Diels-Alder (DA) grafted graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and introduced them into carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The DA-grafted GNPs provided dual benefits, such as repetitive self-healing along with an increased mechanical performance of the modified CFRP. The GNPs were functionalized with DA adducts, i.e., bismaleimide and furfurylamine via a facile functionalization approach. The highest healing efficiency evaluated using double cantilever beam (DCB) tests was observed as ∼87% with more than 10 times repeated healing cycles. The innovative concept and strategy proposed in this work could be a gateway to a new area of research to upscale for industrialization of DA-based repetitive self-healable and durable CFRP-based composites.