Nanocomposites of Nanocarbon Functionalized Carbon Fibers—Manufacturing to Methodological Applications

Carbon fibers have been technically applied in high performance materials and industrial scale applications. Importantly, carbon fiber reinforced composite materials have found applications in aerospace industries. These properties of carbon fiber reinforced composites depend upon the carbon fiber features such as length, orientation, surface properties, adhesion with matrices, etc. To improve the surface properties of carbon fibers and adhesion and interactions with polymers, fiber modification has been suggested as an efficient approach. Carbon nanoparticle or nanocarbon functionalized carbon fibers have been manufactured using various facile physical and chemical approaches such as electrospraying, electrophoretic deposition, chemical vapor deposition, etc. Consequently, the modified carbon fibers have nanocarbon nanoparticles such as graphene, carbon nanotube, nanodiamond, fullerene, and other nanocarbons deposited on the fiber surface. These nanocarbon nanoparticles have fine capability to improve interfacial linking of carbon fibers with the polymer matrices. The chemical vapor deposition has been adopted for uniform deposition of nanocarbon on carbon fibers and chemical methods involving physical or chemical modification have also been frequently used. The resulting advanced epoxy/carbon fiber/nanocarbon composites revealed improved tensile and physical profiles. This review basically aims manufacturing and technical aspects of polymer/fiber/nanofiller nanocomposites toward the development of high performance structures. The resulting morphology, strength, modulus, toughness, thermal stability, and other physical features of the nanocarbon functionalized carbon fibers have been enhanced. In addition, the fabricated polymer/fiber/nanofiller nanocomposites have fine interfacial adhesion, matrix-nanofiller-filler compatibility, and other characteristics. The application areas of these nanomaterials have been found wide ranging including the strengthened engineering structures, supercapacitors, shape memory materials, and several others.