Nature-Mimicking Rigid Tough Interface in Fibrous Composites: Effect of Polymer/Go Combination

Limited delamination resistance remains a serious weakness of high-performance fibrous composites. The study introduces a new concept to improve this performance by the formation of nanostructured ordered rigid tough interface with controllable thickness and parameters. Such a nature-mimicking interlayer based on various GO/ polymer chains combinations is effectively formed by electrophoretic coating, where homogeneous deposition of both components is controlled by enhanced interaction and linking between GO and polymers or pre-coating of GO with polydopamine. Both short-beam strength and stiffness of related composites are just insignificantly affected by parameters and content of polymeric "mortar" incorporated in the interface, including elastomeric chains. This allows wide-range tuning of "artificial nacre"-based interface parameters to increase impact energy release and related resistance to delamination.