Tailored out-of-oven energy efficient manufacturing of high-performance composites with two-stage self-regulating heating via a double positive temperature coefficient effect
The needs for sustainable development and energy efficient manufacturing are crucial in the development of future composite materials. Out-of-oven (OoO) curing of fiber-reinforced composites based on smart conductive polymers reduces energy consumption and self-regulates the heating temperature with enhanced safety in manufacturing, presenting an excellent example of such energy efficient approaches. However, achieving the desired curing processes, especially for high-performance systems where two-stage curing is often required, remains a great challenge. In this study, a ternary system consisting of graphene nanoplatelets/HDPE/PVDF was developed, with a double positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect achieved to fulfill stable self-regulating heating at two temperatures (120 and 150 °C). Systematic studies on both single and double PTC effects were performed, with morphological analysis to understand their pyroresistive behaviors. Compared to the oven curing process, up to 97% reduction in the energy consumption was achieved by the ternary system, while comparable thermal and mechanical properties were obtained in the carbon fiber/epoxy laminates. This work presents a new route to achieve OoO curing with two-stage self-regulating heating, which can be utilized in many high-performance composite applications.
Funding
ESTEEM: Energy efficient and Safe out-of-oven manufacTuring for compositE materials with intEgrated Multifunctionalities
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Materials
Published in
ACS Applied Materials and InterfacesVolume
15Issue
48Pages
56265 - 56274Publisher
American Chemical SocietyVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by the American Chemical Society under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2023-11-02Publication date
2023-11-21Copyright date
2023ISSN
1944-8244eISSN
1944-8252Publisher version
Language
- en