Bending Anchoring Reinforcement of Zinc Nanosheets for Carbon Fiber Composites

It has always been the goal of researchers to enhance the interfacial properties of carbon fiber composites on the basis of maintaining the mechanical strength of carbon fibers. Herein, the technology of zinc nanosheets (Zn NSs) electrophoresis on the surface of carbon fibers is studied, and a method of electrophoresis within 10 s is provided to realize the construction of Zn NSs on the surface of continuous carbon fibers. It is shown that the strength of carbon fibers can be improved by 13.0% due to the ability of Zn NSs to repair the surface defects of carbon fibers. Moreover, the Zn NS bends when the NSs are thermally treated during the curing process of CF/epoxy resin composite. Using the carbon fiber with thermally bent Zn NSs as the anchor, the interfacial interaction of carbon fiber/epoxy composites is improved from 33.5 MPa of desized carbon fiber to 63.3 MPa of Zn NSs-modified carbon fibers, namely, improvement of 88.9%. The enhancement is ascribed to the special-shaped anchorage structure on the surface of carbon fibers that are constructed by the bent Zn NSs.