Manufacture and Mechanical Properties of Nanocomposite Laminates

This work mainly aims to manufacture nanocomposite laminates at first. The prepreg AS-4 graphite/PolyEtherEtherKetone laminates were used to make a 16-layered APC-2 laminate of 2 mm thick via curing the modified diaphragm. The nanoparticles of Silica (SiO2) were uniformly spread on the specific interfaces totally about 1-3% by weight of a laminate by sol-gel method. Second, by the results of mechanical testing we found that the optimal content of nanoparticles is 1% of weight percentage, and the ultimate strength increases with 10% and the corresponding stiffness increases with 22% in the quasi-isotropic nanocomposite laminates. At elevated temperature, the ultimate strength and the stiffness of the mechanical properties drop slightly below 75 C. and degrade highly at 150 C.