Facile and efficient grafting of graphene oxide onto carbon fiber with hyperbranched poly(thioether-yne) via click chemistry to improve interface and mechanical properties of composite

For the purpose of simultaneously improving the interface and mechanical properties of carbon fiber (CF)/epoxy (EP) composite, we presented a more facile and efficient approach to graft graphene oxide (GO) onto CF using hyperbranched poly(thioether-yne) (HPTY) as a bridging agent through the thiol-alkyne click chemistry reaction. The characterization results of FTIR, XPS, Raman, TGA, SEM, and AFM verified successful synthesis of CF-HPTYGO hybrid reinforcement. The simultaneous introduction of GO and HPTY changed the fiber surface topography, meanwhile enhancing wettability and surface energy of CF. Based on that, the composite with superior interface 0Notably, the value of interface shear strength (IFSS) for CF-HPTY-GO/EP composite was enhanced by 94.4 % compared with pristine CF/EP composite. Moreover, the tensile and bending strength for CF-HPTY-GO/EP composite were increased by 38.2 % and 49.1 % compared with pristine CF/EP composite because of the effective stress transfer through interface. Therefore, this work is expected to offer a promising technique for preparing advanced structural composites with outstanding interface and mechanical properties.