The effect of graphene oxide modified short carbon fiber on the interlaminar shear strength of carbon fiber fabric/epoxy composites

Fiber-reinforced polymer composite laminate is weak in the Z-direction, which limits its application. Herein, short carbon fiber (SCF) was decorated with graphene oxide (GO) to form GO@SCF, which was used to improve epoxy matrix and thereby the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of carbon fiber fabric (CFF)-reinforced epoxy composites. The effect of GO@SCF on the ILSS of the composite has been examined. It showed that the optimal content of GO@SCF was 0.1 wt%, and the maximum value of ILSS reached 59.4 MPa, which was 14.7% higher than the pure CFF/epoxy composite. The neat SCF was also employed to enhance the ILSS for the purpose of comparison. The results indicate that GO@SCF has better effect on reinforcing the ILSS than the neat SCF. This study provides an effective approach for the reinforcement of the ILSS of CFF-reinforced epoxy composites.