The work describes the manufacturing and testing of novel hybrid epoxy/carbon fibre composites with silica micro and poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride-functionalised nanoparticles. A specific chemical dispersion procedure was applied using the poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride to avoid clustering of the silica nanoparticles. The influence of the various manufacturing parameters, particles loading, and mechanical properties of the different phases has been investigated with a rigorous Design of Experiment technique based on a full factorial design (2131). Poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride-functionalised silica nanoparticles were able to provide a homogenous dispersion, with a decrease of the apparent density and enhancement of the mechanical properties in the hybrid carbon fibre composites. Compared to undispersed carbon fibre composite laminates, the use of 2 wt% functionalised nanoparticles permitted to increase the flexural modulus by 47% and the flexural strength by 15%. The hybrid carbon fibre composites showed also an increase of the tensile modulus (9%) and tensile strength (5.6%).
Notch-sensitivity of hybrid carbon-fibre/self-reinforced polypropylene composites