Thermo-mechanical stability of epoxy composites induced with surface silanized recycled carbon fibers

Epoxy composites were prepared using surface silanized chopped carbon fibers (CCFs). Silanized CCFs were synthesized from industrial waste carbon fibers. This work demonstrates the capability of surface silanized chopped carbon fibers to enhance the thermo- mechanical stability of the epoxy composites. The surface silanization of the CCFs to amend the interfacial interaction with epoxy network was done by attaching siloxane functional groups onto CCFs surfaces. Epoxy composites blended with 0.5 and 1 wt % of siloxane decorated CCFs showed a tremendous enhancement in storage modulus in comparison to neat epoxy. This enhancement of composites properties opens up the scope to utilize CCFs for high performance and cost effective epoxy composites. This study opens up the use of juvenile CCFs from waste carbon fibers for their utilization in next generation composites. (paper)