VGCF composites properties

While a large body of research has been compiled on VGCF growth mechanisms and the properties of the resulting fiber, very little work has been performed on the properties of composites which are reinforced with VGCF. Essentially, the small quantities of the fiber which has been synthesized, typically in laboratory settings, has not been adequate to support such evaluations. Research efforts at Applied Sciences, Inc. have been motivated by the desire to determine the properties of... 

All VGCF was graphitized prior to composite consolidation. Composites were molded in steel molds lined with fiberglass reinforced, non-porous Teflon release sheets. The finished composite panels were trimmed of resin flash and weighed to determine the fiber fraction. Thermal conductivity and thermal expansion measurements of the various polymer matrix composites are given in Table 6. Table 7 gives results from mechanical property measurements. 

Table 6. Thermal properties of VGCF polymer matrix composites...

The above data represent the first from composites fabricated with fixed catalyst VGCF. A review of the data leads to the conclusion that the thermal and electrical properties of this type of carbon fiber are perhaps the most likely to be exploited in the short term. While mechanical properties of the composites are not as attractive as the thermal and electrical, it may be noted that no effort has... 

The premise that discontinuous short fibers such as floating catalyst VGCF can provide structural reinforcements can be supported by theoretical models developed for the structural properties of paper Cox [36]. This work was recently extended by Baxter to include general fiber architecture [37]. This work predicts that modulus of a composite, E can be determined from the fiber and matrix moduli, Ef and E, respectively, and the fiber volume fraction, Vf, by a variation of the rule of mixtures,... 

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