Enhancement of mechanical properties of carbon fabric/epoxy composites using micro/nano-sized bamboo fibrils

Micro/nano-sized bamboo fibrils (MBFs) were fabricated from raw bamboo using the alkaline treatment technique and the mechanical extraction method (micro-grinding). The fracture toughness of epoxy resin significantly increased by 84.6% from 0.639 MPa m1/2 to 1.18 MPa m1/2 due to 0.8 wt.% MBF inclusion into the resin in comparison with the epoxy resin without MBF. Both mode-I interlaminar fracture toughness of carbon fabric/epoxy (CF/EP) composites at crack initiation and propagation also improved by 35.3% and 47.3%, respectively when 0.8 wt.% MBF was dispersed in the epoxy matrix. The fatigue life of modified composites at all of MBF content up to 0.8 wt.% dramatically increased 12–25 times longer than those of unmodified composites at high cycle fatigue while the tensile strength slightly increased. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations revealed that MBF delayed the onset of matrix crack, and reduced the crack growth in the CF/EP composites.