Mechanical and Thermodynamic Properties of Unidirectional Flax Fiber Reinforced CNT Modified Epoxy Composites

In this paper, the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-F (DGEBF) epoxy resin and flax fiber FRP composites, which was modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. The mechanical property tests show significant improvements in the tensile strength (48.7 %), tensile modulus (25.2 %) at 1.0 wt.% of MWCNTs. DMTA test reveals that mixture of 1.0 wt.% MWCNTs into the epoxy resin increases 10.68 K of T_g, which is in accordance to the simulated results from molecular dynamics. These improvements in mechanical and thermodynamic properties are attributed to the balanced effect of stress concentration and radiation. The mechanical and thermodynamic properties of flax fiber FRP composites are improved with the addition of MWCNTs. This study is expected to provide an opportunity to develop high performance of natural fiber FRP composites.