Abstract

Epoxy resin composites inherent brittleness and poor crack resistance make necessary some form of toughening. Recently, several types of nanoparticles are being incorporated due to their theoretical high stiffness and strength. However, the addition of tougheners to the entire matrix resin could lead to a decrease in in-plane mechanical properties and to an increased viscosity of the system, being reduced the processing ability of matrix resin. Moreover, a homogeneous dispersion of these nanoparticles is still a problem. Thermoplastic nanofibrous structures can tackle these problems. They offer a solution for the dispersion issue, since they can be readily embedded in the resin and incorporate a nanosized phase in the composite. These nanofibres also do not increase the viscosity of the resin. Moreover, due to their macro scale length, no health hazards are involved in the production and use of these nanofibres.

This paper investigates the effect of electrospun nanofibrous veils made of polyamide 6 modified with TiO2 nanoparticles on the properties of a carbon fibre/epoxy composite. The nanofibres were incorporated in the carbon fibre/epoxy composite as stand-alone interlayered structure during a vacuum infusion process. The effect of positioning these veils in different composite positions has been investigated. Incorporation of polyamide nanofibers increases the stress at failure and the Young’s modulus. Furthermore, mode I tests showed a slight improvement. When TiO2 modified veils are incorporated in the composite, similar mechanical properties were obtained, but new antibacterial properties were achieved when irradiated with UV light widening the application area of these composites.