Effect of nano clay and carbon nano-tube on the glass fiber- epoxy hybrid composites

In recent years Epoxy/fiberglass composite due to its good properties and low cost of has attracted much attention. Relatively low flexural and interlaminar shear strength are the two most important weaknesses of this composite, which limit its uses. One way for improving these properties is by increasing particles to the matrix, in other words, producing hybrid composites. Carbon nanotube and nanoparticles of clay, based on their good function in the epoxy matrix as reinforcements have attracted much attention for such purpose. Although, adding these kinds of particles will improve the properties of epoxy/fiberglass composite, but generally will increase its production cost, which is why these researches have had no practical uses for the industry yet. In this study, nanoparticles of clay and carbon nanotube were added to the epoxy matrix by a regular mechanical mixer with a speed of 300-400 rpm, and the flexural strength and the interlaminar shear strength were investigated and compared with the epoxy/fiberglass composite. The results show that increasing the nono clay particles to the matrix increase the flexural strength of the composite. The sample with 0.5 wt. % of nono clay shows the greatest increase in flexural strength, which is about 25 % more than the sample without nanoparticles. The interlaminar shear strength is also increased by about 5%, by adding 2 wt.% of nanoparticles of clay. The addition of carbon nanotubes in this method has a bad effect on properties.