Impact of the Curing Temperature on the Manufacturing Process of Multi-Nanoparticle-Reinforced Epoxy Matrix Composites

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effect of the curing temperature of nano-reinforcements during the manufacturing process on the mechanical properties of composites involving graphene (GNP), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and a hybrid mixture of these two nanoparticles. In this context, the type of nanoparticles, their content, their type of resin, and their hybridization were considered. The results showed that both nanoparticles increased the viscosity of the resin suspension, with an increase of between 16.3% and 38.2% for GNP nanoparticles and 45.4% and 74% for CNFs depending on the type of resin. Shrinkage was also affected by the addition of nanoparticles, as the highest results were obtained with GNP nanoparticles, with a 91% increase compared with the neat resin, and the lowest results were obtained with CNFs, with a decrease of 77% compared with the neat resin. A curing temperature of 5 °C promoted the best bending and hardness performance for all composites regardless of the type of resin and reinforcement used, with improvements of up to 24.8% for GNP nanoparticles and 13.52% for CNFs compared with the neat resin at 20 °C. Hybridization led to further improvements in bending properties and hardness compared with single-reinforcement composites due to a synergistic effect. However, the effectiveness of hybridization depends on the type of resin.