Impressive Fatigue Life and Fracture Toughness Improvements in Graphene Oxide/Epoxy Composites

TLDR: In this article, the authors report enhancements of 28-111% in mode I fracture toughness and up to 1580% in uniaxial tensile fatigue life through the addition of small amounts (≤1 wt %) of graphene oxide to an epoxy system.

Abstract: Epoxy systems have proven popular having important applications in aerospace and wind energy, but fracture and fatigue resistance of this polymer remain less than desired. Graphene oxide, a form of atomically thin carbon, possessing impressive multifunctional properties and an ideal interface for interacting with polymer matrices, has emerged as a viable reinforcement candidate. In this work, we report enhancements of 28–111% in mode I fracture toughness and up to 1580% in uniaxial tensile fatigue life through the addition of small amounts (≤1 wt %) of graphene oxide to an epoxy system. Graphene oxide was uniquely synthesized by unraveling and splaying open helical-ribbon carbon nanofibers. The resulting oxygenated basal planes and edges of the graphene oxide sheets were observed to promote onset of the cross-linking reaction and led to an increase in total heat of reaction effecting slightly higher glass transition temperatures of the cured composites. Measured improvements were also detected in quasi-st...