1 Copyright 2011 by ASME

INTER-LAMINAR MECHANICAL PROPERTIES IMPROVEMENTS IN CARBON NANOTUBES

REINFORCED LAMINATED NANOCOMPOSITES


Davood Askari
1
and Mehrdad N. Ghasemi-Nejhad
2



1
Department of Engineering
The University of Texas at Brownsville
Brownsville, TX 78520
davood.askari@utb.edu

2
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
nejhad@hawaii.edu



ABSTRACT
Owing to their superior mechanical properties, carbon
nanotubes (CNTs) can be used as an additional reinforcement
to improve the mechanical properties of laminated composite
materials. To incorporate the excellent properties of CNTs into
the existing traditional composite technology, vertically aligned
high density arrays of CNTs were grown perpendicular to the
surface of 2-D woven cloths and tows of various fibrous
materials. The nano-forest like structures of fabrics is used to
fabricate 3-D reinforced nanocomposites. Due to the presence
of aligned CNTs in through-the-thickness direction, it is
expected that the inter-laminar and through-the-thickness
properties of the composite laminate will be improved
considerably. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach,
various composite single lap-joint specimens were fabricated
for inter-laminar shear strength testing. Carbon woven cloths
with and without CNTs nano-forests were inserted in between
the single lap-joints using epoxy adhesive to measure the inter-
laminar shear strength improvements due to the presence of
through-the-thickness aligned CNTs nano-forests. It is observed
that single lap-joints with carbon cloth insertion layers having
CNTs nano-forest can carry up to 12% higher shear stress and
16% higher strain-to-failure. The failures of samples with nano-
forests were completely cohesive while the sample with carbon
woven cloth insertion failed adhesively. This concludes that the
adhesion of adjacent carbon fabric layers can be considerably
improved due to the growth of vertically aligned CNTs nano-
forest in through-the-thickness direction.

KEYWORDS: Carbon Nanotubes, Laminated Composites and
Nanocomposites, Material Properties, Inter-laminar Shear
Strength and Strain.

INTRODUCTION
The main advantage of composites, in addition to their
high specific strength and stiffness, is their ability to be tailored
towards a specific loading condition, i.e., placing the load
carrying fibers where the loadings and stresses are. Nearly one-
dimensional fiber materials with their anisotropic properties
have been used as the reinforcements, along with a bonding
material called the matrix, to manufacture structural composites
in which mechanical loads are to be transferred through the
embedded fibers. Fibers usually are very strong in the
longitudinal direction but weak in lateral direction. Therefore,
when they are used to make structural composites, the final
product will have weak through-the-thickness mechanical
properties. In addition, when 1-D unidirectional composites
and/or 2-D woven laminated composites are manufactured the
interlaminar properties are controlled by the matrix properties,
since the adjacent layers are bonded by the matrix only,
yielding poor interlaminar and through-the-thickness
properties. This weakness often leads to interlaminar failures
(such as delamination) in composites [1]. To overcome this
problem, 3-D composites such as 3-D stitching and 3-D
braiding have been proposed [2, 3]. The 3-D braided fibers, as
raw materials, do not solve general purpose applications since
the part thickness should be known in advance. In addition, in
3-D braided materials, the fiber directions are not orthogonal.
As a result, the use of 3-D braided fiber architecture is limited
to some specific applications and geometries. As far as the
stitching is concerned, the thickness should be determined and
then stitching performed. In this case, the fibers can be
orthogonal; however, the post operation of stitching is
performed only after the structure is designed to determine the
thickness to be stitched to provide through-the-thickness fibers.
In addition, while stitching can improve some through-the-
thickness properties, it reduces the in-plane properties [4, 5].
Proceedings of the ASME 2011 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition
IMECE2011
November 11-17, 2011, Denver, Colorado, USA
IMECE2011-64283
2 Copyright 2011 by ASME
Above all, the traditional composites lack any rooms for
multifunctionality.

It is reported that the addition of certain nanostrutured
materials as secondary reinforcement may lead to improvement
of the composite materials if a properly processed and optimum
amount of nanomaterials is used [6-10]. Owing to their superior
material properties CNTs are one of the best candidates to be
used as an effective reinforcing material [11-13]. Cao et al. [14]
and Veedu et al. [15] developed a 3-D multifunctional
hierarchical nanocomposite, where a new technique was
introduced to grow carbon nanotubes in the perpendicular
(through-the-thickness) direction on silicon carbide (SiC) fibers
and woven cloths similar to a nano-brush and nano-forest.
Using the nano-forest layers, they fabricated a truly 3-D
laminated nanocomposite with superior through-the-thickness
properties. Moreover, they have introduced multifunctional
capabilities in their novel nanocomposite, such as increased
mechanical properties as well as manipulation and control of
coefficient of thermal expansion, electrical conductivity,
thermal conductivity, and structural damping [15, 16]. They
have successfully shown that the material properties of their 3-
D laminated nanocomposite such as fracture toughness G
IC
,
G
IIC
, flexural modulus, flexural strength, flexural toughness,
damping, coefficient of thermal expansion, through-the-
thickness thermal conductivity, and through-the-thickness
electrical conductivity have improved, substantially. These
results show the effectiveness of the proposed solution for
improvement of the through-the-thickness materials properties
and multifunctinality of the laminated composites by means of
additional radially aligned CNTs reinforcements over the fiber
cloths. However, in their work, they only grew CNTs on SiC
fibers/cloths and it was not possible to directly grow CNTs on
comonly used non-SiC (such as Glass, Kevlar, and Carbon)
fibers/cloths.

Here in this work, we developed a new techniques to grow
radially alligned CNTs on non-SiC fibers and fiber cloths [16].
Once CNTs are grown on fibers and fiber cloths, the same
procedures for matrix impregnations, lay-up laminations, and
curing, as used in a traditional wet lay-up technique for
composites manufacturing [1], can be used to develop 3-D
hierarchical nanocomposites with superior through-the-
thickness properties and multifunctionality, as demonstrated by
Ghasemi-Nejhad and co-workers [14-16]. To demonstrate the
effectiveness of our approach, various composite single lap-
joint specimens were fabricated for inter-laminar shear strength
testing. Carbon woven cloths with and without CNTs nano-
forests were inserted in between the single lap-joints using
epoxy adhesive to measure the inter-laminar shear strength
improvements due to the presence of through-the-thickness
aligned CNTs nano-forests. It is observed that single lap-joints
with carbon cloth insertion layers having CNTs nano-forest can
carry up to 12% higher shear stress and 16% higher strain-to-
failure. The failures of samples with nano-forests were
completely cohesive while the sample with carbon woven cloth
insertion failed adhesively. This concludes that the adhesion of
adjacent carbon fabric layers can be considerably improved due
to the growth of vertically aligned CNTs nano-forest in
through-the-thickness direction.

GROWTH OF CARBON NANOTUBES OVER 2-D
FABRICS OF VARIOUS MICROFIBERS
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) technique is one of the
very simple and economical ways of producing CNTs and was
introduced in 1993 by Endo et al. [17]. In general, a mixture of
hydrocarbon (e.g., exylene) and metal catalyst particles (e.g.,
ferrocene) is introduced (i.e., in vapor phase), through an inert
gas flow (e.g., Ar or mixture of Ar and H
2
), into a quartz tube
furnace at the center of which a substrate is placed. One of the
main advantages of CVD growth technique is that aligned
CNTs can be grown with desired architectures and at
previously patterned substrates for desired applications. For our
research, the CVD growth technique, similar to that introduced
by Andrews et al. [18], was chosen due to its simplicity and
ability for substantial control over the important growth
parameters such as: CNTs length, alignment, and pattern of
growth. It also allows us to directly grow CNTs on various
types of substrates. Depending on their composition, not all
substrates are suitable for CNTs growth. Silicon and silicon
dioxide based solid substrates are most widely used as
substrates in CVD growth of CNTs. However, other types of
substrates may also be used if coasted or doped with catalysis,
prior to growth process. Several methods (e.g., SiC
nanoparticles coating, SiC based pre-ceramic polymer coating,
silicon dioxide puttering or chemical treatment) have been used
to directly grow CNT arrays over fibrous materials [16]. In this
study, chemical treatment with diluted HF acid was used to
directly grow CNTs on different types of fabrics.

Fibers often are coated with a very thin layer of compatible
materials (i.e. sizing) for protection, ease of handling, and
improved adhesion to the matrix. Thus, CNTs cannot directly
grow on most of the commercially available fibers. To
overcome this problem, the fiber coatings were removed and
functionalized with diluted HF acid, and hence the main
materials of the fibers were exposed to which the iron catalyst
particles had tendency to attach during the CVD processing.
Consequently, upon CVD process arrays of vertically aligned
CNTs were successfully grown on chemically treated Sic,
carbon, glass and Kevlar fibers.

Figure 1 shows a photograph of HF acid treated/etched
carbon woven cloths before and after CVD processing. The
CVD processing time for the layers from bottom to top was
varied with increments of 20 minutes from 0 minutes to 60
minutes, respectively. It can clearly be seen that the CNTs yield
for the top layers was much higher than the bottom layers, as
one would expect. The size of the carbon woven cloths shown
in Fig. 1 was roughly 25 mm by 25 mm. It should be noted that
since the optimum growth zone for the growth of CNTs in our
current CVD system is only 3.5 cm by 7 cm, the fabrication of
larger samples may not be easily possible and require a larger
furnace.
3 Copyright 2011 by ASME

Figure 1: HF treated/etched carbon fiber woven cloths
subjected to various CVD processing times, with 20 minutes
increments, for the growth of CNTs nano-forests.

Figures 2 and 3 show the scanning electron micrographs (SEM)
of uniform growth of the radially aligned CNTs on chemically
treated carbon fiber cloth subjected to approximately 1 hour of
the CVD process, with various magnifications. The average
length of the grown CNTs was measured to be ~ 100 m.
Similar results have been obtained for HF treated SiC, Kevlar,
and glass fibers.

Figure 2: Low (left) and high (right) magnification SEM
images of the radially aligned uniform growth of CNTs over
HF acid treated/etched carbon fiber-cloth, after approximately 1
hour of CVD process.


Figure 3: Low (left) and high (right) magnification SEM
images of the radially aligned uniform growth of CNTs (Inset:
helical CNT) over the HF acid treated/etched carbon fiber-cloth
edge, after approximately 1 hour of CVD process.

SEM images with various magnifications provided in this
section, demonstrates our success in CVD growth of radially
aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on
different micro-fibers. The average diameter of the examined
micro-fibers were 6 m to 20 m and the diameter and length
of the radially grown MWCNTs were approximately 35 nm to
50 nm and 300 m to 400 m, respectively. It is observed that
the rate of the CNTs growth on SiC fibers, SiC coated non-SiC
fibers, and HF acid treated/etched glass fibers is almost similar
(i.e., 300-400 m/hour) and considerably higher than the
growth rate of CNTs over the HF acid treated/etched Kevlar
and carbon fibers (i.e., ~100 m/hour). These unique structures
provide very large chemically-physically available active
surfaces which may have potential applications for
nanocleaning, painting micro-surfaces, selective chemical
absorption and filtration, high efficiency heat dinks and
thermal-electrical conductors. In addition, they can be used to
substantially enhance mechanical and physical properties of the
composite materials. [14, 15]. Since the CNTs are radially
grown on the fibers, it is expected that they will considerably
contribute to the improvement of not only mechanical
properties (e.g., strength, strain-to-failure, fracture toughness,
coefficient of thermal expansion, and damping), but also
physical properties (e.g., thermal and electrical conductivities)
[15] of the traditional laminated composites. As a result, the use
of these CNTs grown fibers/cloths facilitates the fabrication of
high performance 3-D laminated nanocomposites with
multifunctional capabilities. For further demonstration, CVD
processed HF acid treated carbon fiber cloths, were used
fabricate single joint samples to mechanically measure the
shear strength improvements. The presence of CNTs in
between the fabric layers and through-the-thickness direction is
expected to considerably improve the interface properties that
will translate into enhancement of the fiber-matrix adhesion.


SAMPLE PREPARATION AND TESTING
In this section of, sample preparations and mechanical
single lap-joint shear strength testing based on the ASTM
D5868-01 is presented for three different sets, denoted by A,
B, and C. Lap joints are widely used in adhesive joints, as
they are simpler to make and assemble, and the stress
developed in the adhesive is almost always shear [19]. For each
set of samples, a layer of carbon woven cloth with or without a
CNTs nano-forest on one or both sides, is placed in between
two rectangular bars made of carbon fiber laminated composite
(see Fig. 4). Next tensile loads were applied to break the lap
joints and measure the corresponding shear strength values. The
measured shear strengths were in fact the adhesion strengths of
middle carbon fabric layers to the adjacent laminae (i.e., the
interface between the plain fabrics and the fabrics with CNTs
nano-forests).


Figure 4: Schematic of the single lap-joint shear strength test
based on ASTM D5868-01.
4 Copyright 2011 by ASME
The carbon woven cloth used for set A samples is plain in
both sides with no CNTs. The set B samples have a layer of
carbon woven cloth with vertically aligned CNTs nano-forest
grown on both sides. Specimens in the set C samples have a
layer of carbon woven cloth with CNTs nano-forest grown only
on one side. These samples are directly used to demonstrate the
adhesion enhancement (i.e., higher inter-laminar shear strength)
of the carbon fabric layers with vertically aligned through-the-
thickness CNTs nano-forests as compared to the plain carbon
cloths with no CNTs. The average length of the CNTs grown
on carbon fabrics was roughly estimated to be ~ 40 micron,
after a 30 minute 30 min CVD process. To manufacture the
rectangular carbon fiber/epoxy laminated composite adherends,
8 layers of stain weave (5-harness) carbon prepregs [20] were
hand laid-up on a solid aluminum plate followed by a vacuum
bagging and an autoclaving technique. Note that a symmetric
quasi-isotropic stacking sequence was used and then the
manufactured laminated composite was cut to obtain samples
with the dimensions suggested by the ASTM standard D5868-
01, (see Figs. 4).

To assemble the adherends (i.e., composite laminated bars and
carbon plain weaves with or without CNTs nano-forest), a very
thin layer of SC-15 epoxy resin & hardener [21] is used as an
adhesive in between the adherends, and then the single lap-joint
samples were uniformly compressed in the overlapped adhesion
area using two solid disks and a C-clamp and then is placed
inside a mechanical convection oven followed by a cure cycle
according to the manufacturers suggestion [21]. Initially, the
temperature of the convection oven was increased from the
room temperature of 23 C to 150 C at a rate of 1.5 C/min and
then it was kept at 150 C for nearly 1 hour followed by natural
cooling.

Five samples were prepared for each set (i.e., sets, A, B,
and C) as suggested by ASTM D 5868-01. Finally, prepared
single lap-joint shear test samples were tested using an Instron
testing machine (see Fig. 5), and then the average values of
shear strengths and strains-to-failure for each set of samples
were obtained. The next section of this report presents and
compares the results obtained from single lap-joint shear tests
and discusses the effects of the additional through-the-thickness
CNTs nano-forest reinforcements on inter-laminar shear
strength of the laminated composites.

Figure 5: A single lap-joint composite sample under shear
stress due to the application of axial tensile load.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
As mentioned earlier, five specimens were tested for each
set of samples from which average values of shear strength and
strain to failure were obtained. To calculate the shear strength
of each sample, the maximum tensile load was simply divided
by the overlapping bonded area and to calculate the strain-to-
failure value, the axial extension was simply divided by the
gauge length of the specimen. The average values of shear
strength and strain-to-failure for the set A specimens (i.e.,
single lap-joint samples with bare carbon plain weave cloth)
were 11.62511 MPa and 0.01471, respectively. It was observed
that the fracture of the set A specimens had occurred through
the adhesive layer and the separation of adherends had occurred
within the adhesive bound, suggesting an adhesive failure
mode. The bare carbon weave layers were entirely left on one
side of the fractured surface without any tear or fiber
pullout/distortions (see Fig. 6). It can be seen that the fracture
surface is very clean and shiny, meaning that the failure had
occurred right at the interface of the carbon fabric layer and
surface of the composite laminate, at the adhesive.

Figure 6: A typical fracture surface observed for set A
specimens, after single lap-joint shear test.
In general, there are two dominant mechanisms of failure for
adhesively bonded joints, namely; adhesive failure and
cohesive failure. Adhesive failure in fact is the interfacial
failure between the adhesive and one of the adherends, which is
indicative of a weak-boundary layer adhesion. On the other
hand, cohesive failure is when the fracture results in a layer of
adhesive remaining on both adherend surfaces and, more rarely,
when the adherend fails before the adhesive, with fracture
almost contained in the adherend [19]. This later failure is
known as cohesive failure of the substrate. It should be
mentioned that the ideal type of failure is when cohesive failure
occurs through the adhesive or one of the adherends. It can be
concluded that with this type of failure mode, the joining
system is a strong one.
Next, the specimens from set C samples (i.e., single lap-joint
samples with CNTs nano-forest grown only on one side of the
carbon fabric layer) were tested, for which the average values
were almost similar to set A samples, with no considerable
differences. While assembling the set C samples and prior to
the shear strength testing, the sides with CNTs nano-forests
were marked to examine whether the specimens will break at
5 Copyright 2011 by ASME
the bare side or the CNTs nan-forest side. As was expected,
fractures occurred on the bare side of the carbon weave layers
where no CNTs were grown. The rupture of lap-joints for set
C samples where within the adhesive layer resulting in
adhesive/interface failure. Note that the fracture surfaces where
similar to those of set A samples, as shown in Fig. 6. Based
on the results from the testing of set A and set C samples
alone, it is evident that the inter-laminar shear strength of the
adhesive bonds between the carbon fabric layers with CNTs
nano-forests and composite laminates is much higher than that
of bare carbon fabrics with no through-the-thickness CNTs
reinforcements. It can be stated that the presence of vertically
aligned CNTs perpendicular to the surface of the 2-D carbon
weave cloths (i.e., through-the-thickness direction)
considerably contributes to a more efficient shear stress load
transfer and enhances the interface properties of the laminated
composite structures. In other words, additional through-the-
thickness vertically aligned CNTs reinforcements improves the
adhesion of the adjacent layers, resulting in laminated
nanocomposite with much higher inter-laminar shear strength,
as well as those properties improvements demonstrated by
Veedu et al. [15].
To quantify the inter-laminar shear strength enhancements due
to the presence of vertically aligned CNTs nano-forests, set B
samples were tested similar to sets A and C samples. The
average values of shear strength and strain-to-failure for the set
B specimens (i.e., single lap-joint samples with vertically
aligned CNTs nano-forests grown on both sides of the carbon
fabric layer) were 13.00745 MPa and 0.01709, respectively.
These values are considerably higher than those obtained for
sets A and C samples and show nearly 12% and 16%
improvements in shear strength and strain-to-failure,
respectively. It should be mentioned that the results from
testing different samples were very consistent with standard
deviations of less than 3%. Close examination of the fracture
surfaces on set B samples reveals that the fracture occurred
within and through the inserted carbon fabric layer and not at
the interface regions (see Fig. 7). It is clearly evident that the
carbon fabric is completely torn apart and has remained on both
sides of the composite lap joint. The rupture region is within
the inserted carbon fabric layer and not the interfaces,
suggesting that the inter-laminar shear strength of vertically
aligned CNTs nano-forest carbon fabrics is even much higher
than the values obtained for set B samples.


Figure 7: Typical fracture surfaces observed for set B
specimens, after single lap-joint shear test for both sides of the
sheared portion of the specimen.

Therefore, this is a cohesive failure where the adherend has
failed before the adhesive, and the fracture occurred through
the adherend, which is an ideal type of failure. These
observations simply demonstrate that through-the-thickness
material properties (e.g., inter-laminar shear strength and strain-
to-failure) of laminated composite structures, using vertically
aligned 3-D CNTs nano-forest woven fabrics have been
substantially improved. However, a more accurate estimate of
the inter-laminar shear strength properties enhancements could
be obtained, using this test, if the properties of the inserted
carbon fabric layers were much stronger in shear. To accurately
measure GIC and GIIC properties, DCB and ENF tests [15]
have to be carried out.

For further verification, SEM images of the fractured surfaces
also are obtained for sets A and B samples, some of which
are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively.

Figure 8: A typical SEM image of the fracture surfaces
observed for set A specimens, after single lap-joint shear test.

SEM image in Fig. 8 shows the direct failure of the adhesive
layer between the inter-layer and the laminated specimen. On
the contrary, one can clearly observe the presence of fractured
bare carbon fibers in SEM image of Fig. 9 that is a verification
of a cohesive failure. The surface of the inter-layer carbon
fabric in Fig. 8 does not show any fiber distortion or breakage
where the surface is covered with a thin layer of adhesive and
where the failure occurs in a clean shear mode. This is an
evidence for adhesive failure mode in set A samples.
However, the fiber breakage and pull-out can clearly be seen in
Figs. 7 and 9.


Figure 9: A typical SEM image of the fracture surfaces
observed for set B specimens, after single lap-joint shear test.
Inset: close-up view of the fibers fracture.
6 Copyright 2011 by ASME
CONCLUSIONS
Composite materials have a wide range of applications,
depending on their compositions, shape, size, and properties.
Due to their light weight, multifunctional characteristics, and
high strength, composite materials have been widely used in
space and aerospace structures, as well as in sport and
automotive industries. The development of nanocomposite
materials with improved properties and characteristics can
significantly benefit the applications where high performance
materials are greatly desired. Chemical vapor deposition
technique have been employed to grow vertically aligned arrays
of CNTs perpendicular to the surface of chemically treated 2-D
woven cloths and tows of various fibrous materials. The nano-
forests like fabrics can then be used to fabricate 3-D reinforced
laminated nanocomposites. Due to the presence of aligned
CNTs in through-the-thickness direction and in between the
adjacent fabric layers of laminated composite, it was expected
that the inter-laminar and through-the-thickness properties of
composite laminates would be improved, considerably, and the
fabricated composite structure would possess multifunctional
capabilities.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach,
composite single lap-joint specimens were fabricated for inter-
laminar shear strength testing. Carbon woven cloths with and
without CNTs nano-forests were inserted in between the single
lap-joints using epoxy adhesive to measure their inter-laminar
shear strength improvements. It is observed that single lap-
joints with carbon cloth insertion layers having CNTs nano-
forest can carry up to 12% higher shear stress and 16% higher
strain-to-failure. Fractured surfaces were examined under SEM.
The failures of samples with nano-forests insertions were
completely cohesive, while the samples with plain carbon
woven cloth insertions failed adhesively. This concludes that
the adhesion of adjacent carbon fabric layers can be
considerably improved due to the presence of vertically aligned
CNTs nano-forests in through-the-thickness direction.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge the Office of Naval Research
(ONR) for the financial support under the government grant
number of N00014-05-1-0586 for the ADPICAS project. The
first author also acknowledges the Department of Engineering
and the College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology of
the University of Texas at Brownsville for their support.
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