Using surface grafted poly(acrylamide) to simultaneously enhance the tensile strength, tensile modulus, and interfacial adhesion of carbon fibres in epoxy composites

Abstract Surface initiated electro-polymerization of acrylamide on carbon fiber with methodically varied amounts of acrylamide monomer and N,N′-methylene bis-acrylamide crosslinker is explored in this study. The effect of the polymer coating on tensile strength, Young's modulus, and interfacial properties of carbon fibre in an epoxy resin was determined. A significant improvement in tensile strength, tensile modulus, and interfacial shear strength (IFSS) across all modified samples was observed, with the most notable improvements to tensile strength, tensile modulus and IFSS being 38%, 15% and 192.5%, respectively. This covalently bound polymer coating provides the best kind of solution for the two most crucial limitations of carbon fibre, with the minimum amount of effort, time, and cost.