Tough carbon fiber composites by hybridization with self-reinforced composites

While the interest in carbon fiber composites for automotive applications is rapidly increasing, their high cost and low failure strain or toughness continue to impede their widespread use. Both factors can be improved by hybridizing carbon fibers with a material that offers both ductility and reduced cost. In this work, the hybridization with highly oriented polypropylene tapes was investigated. Hybrid co-woven cloths of carbon fiber/polypropylene (PP) prepregs and oriented PP tapes were used to make hybrid composites with carbon fiber volume fractions of 3, 8 and 15%. Increasing the fraction of carbon fiber significantly increased tensile modulus, while the ultimate failure strain of 20% was maintained. Only at a carbon fiber fraction of 15% did the tensile failure strain fall significantly, but importantly, this hybrid composite still possessed good impact resistance. All hybrid composites maintained excellent thermoformability, making these composites suitable for high-volume production.

Publication year:2014

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