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Multifunctional composites using reinforced laminae with carbon-nanotube forests

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 457–462 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Traditional fibre-reinforced composite materials with excellent in-plane properties fare poorly when out-of-plane through-thickness properties are important1. Composite architectures with fibres designed orthogonal to the two-dimensional (2D) layout in traditional composites could alleviate this weakness in the transverse direction, but all of the efforts1,2 so far have only produced limited success. Here, we unveil an approach to the 3D composite challenge, without altering the 2D stack design, on the basis of the concept of interlaminar carbon-nanotube3,4 forests that would provide enhanced multifunctional properties along the thickness direction. The carbon-nanotube forests allow the fastening of adjacent plies in the 3D composite. We grow multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the surface of micro-fibre fabric cloth layouts, normal to the fibre lengths, resulting in a 3D effect between plies under loading. These nanotube-coated fabric cloths serve as building blocks for the multilayered 3D composites, with the nanotube forests providing much-needed interlaminar strength and toughness under various loading conditions. For the fabricated 3D composites with nanotube forests, we demonstrate remarkable improvements in the interlaminar fracture toughness, hardness, delamination resistance, in-plane mechanical properties, damping, thermoelastic behaviour, and thermal and electrical conductivities making these structures truly multifunctional.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the steps involved in the hierarchical nanomanufacturing of a 3D composite.
Figure 2: The growth of CNTs on the SiC woven cloth.
Figure 3: Fracture-toughness experimental results and fracture-surface images of base composite and 3D composite.
Figure 4: Demonstration of multifunctionalities exhibited by the 3D composite.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Crawford of MTS Nano Instruments, for many helpful discussions. V.P.V. and M.N.G.-N. acknowledge the support of the ADPICAS project funded by the Office of Naval Research under government grant numbers N00014-00-1-0692 and N00014-05-1-0586. A.C. acknowledges the ADPICAS project as well as the start-up support from the College of Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. P.M.A. acknowledges the support of the Focus Center of New York for Electronic Interconnects and the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for the directed assembly of nanostructures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hawaii Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 302, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822, USA

    Vinod P. Veedu, Anyuan Cao, Kougen Ma & Mehrdad N. Ghasemi-Nejhad

  2. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, 12180, USA

    Xuesong Li, Caterina Soldano, Swastik Kar & Pulickel M. Ajayan

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  1. Vinod P. Veedu
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Correspondence to Vinod P. Veedu, Pulickel M. Ajayan or Mehrdad N. Ghasemi-Nejhad.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary information, equations S1-S2 and figures S1-S4 (PDF 442 kb)

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Veedu, V., Cao, A., Li, X. et al. Multifunctional composites using reinforced laminae with carbon-nanotube forests. Nature Mater 5, 457–462 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1650

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