LAUSR

Abstract The major causes of failure of Kevlar reinforced composites are inter-yarn slippage and poor adhesion with polymer. Herein, long length multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are used as a secondary reinforcement to enhance the interfacial interaction between Kevlar and epoxy through bridging action. Different wt. % of MWCNT based Kevlar reinforced hybrid composite tape and their laminar composites have been prepared and their quasi-static unidirectional and dynamic mechanical properties are studied. It is found that the maximum tensile strength, Young's modulus and storage modulus of optimized i.e. 0.3 wt % of MWCNTs in epoxy resin (0.3KE) composite showed an overall improvement of ∼81%, ∼56% and ∼139%, respectively over base line composite tape (KE). The flexural modulus, Young's modulus and storage modulus of 0.3 wt % multi-scaled laminar composite (KEC) showed an overall improvement of ∼33%, ∼50%, and ∼233%, respectively over KE. The effects of MWCNTs on interfacial properties of multi-scaled composite tapes are correlated by Raman spectral shift, FTIR and XRD analysis. Further the bridging actions of long length MWCNTs are visualized by using high resolution transmission electron microscopy.