Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Graphene Nanoplates and Carbon-Nanotubes Hybrid Epoxy Nanocomposites

Carbon nanomaterials have attracted tremendous interest as a nano-filler for epoxy nanocomposites due to their excellent properties. The efficient reinforcement has been largely limited by the agglomeration of these nano-fillers within epoxy matrix. In this work, shear mixing followed by sonication is used to prepare CNTs+GNPs/epoxy hybrid composites. The epoxy reinforced with nano-filler CNTs+GNPs (CNTs+GNPs /epoxy) hybrid composites were prepared by mixing (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) wt% of (CNTs+GNPs) with epoxy at (CNTs: GNPs) ratio of (1:1). The tensile properties, contact angle and electrical conductivity were measured. A remarkable synergetic effect between the GNPs and CNTs in improving the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of epoxy composites is demonstrated.