Superior mechanical and ballistic performance of carbon nanotube-reinforced phenolic/aramid fabric composites via a two-roll pressing process

In this study, aramid fiber (AF)/phenolic resin prepreg was fabricated by impregnating low content carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced phenolic resin with aramid fabric through a two-roll pressing process. Both non-functionalized and carboxylic-functionalized CNTs (CNTs and CNTs-COOH) were used for comparison study. For each of the formulations, composite laminate was made by a hot-pressing process with a number of the prepregs stacked together. Mechanical properties and ballistic performance of the laminates and material failure mechanisms were evaluated and analyzed. Both non-functionalized and CNTs-COOH can effectively improve the mechanical and ballistic performance of the laminates. With CNTs-COOH reinforcement, better results were achieved. As compared with the laminate without CNT reinforcement, 1.0 wt% CNTs-COOH-reinforced laminate showed 19.41%, 22.29%, and 45.83% improvement in tensile, flexural, and adhesion shear strength, respectively. The ballistic test results showed that the V50 and the specific energy absorption (SEA) were increased by 5.77% and 13.44%, respectively. The correlation between mechanical and ballistic performance of the composites was analyzed and conducted. CNT-reinforced phenolic/aramid fabric composites with superior mechanical and ballistic performance. image