Improved Interlaminar Fracture Toughness and Electrical Conductivity of CFRPs with Non-Woven Carbon Tissue Interleaves Composed of Fibers with Different Lengths

Non-woven carbon tissue (NWCT) with different fiber lengths was prepared with a simple surfactant-assistant dispersion and filtration method and used as interleaving to enhance both delamination resistance and electrical conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) laminates. The toughing effect of NWCT on both Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture of CFRPs laminate is dependent on length of fibers, where the shorter carbon fibers (0.8 mm) perform better on Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness improvement whereas longer carbon fibers (4.3 mm) give more contribution to the Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness increase, comparing with the baseline composites, and the toughness increase was achieved without compromising of flexural mechanical properties. More interestingly, comparing with the baseline composites, the electrical conductivity of the interleaved composites exhibited a significant enhancement with in-plane and through-the-thickness direction, respectively. Microscopy analysis of the carbon tissue interleaving area in the laminate indicated that carbon fibers with shorter length can form into a 3D network with more fibers aligned along through-the-thickness direction compared with longer ones. The shorter fibers thus potentially provide more effective fiber bridges, pull-out and matrix deformation during the crack propagation and improve the electric conductivity significantly in through-the-thickness direction.