Effect of Nanographite on Electrical, Mechanical and Wear Characteristics of Graphite Epoxy Composites

Effect of weight fraction (WF, mg/dL) of nanographite (NG, 400 nm) on electrical, mechanical and wear and characteristics of graphite epoxy composites (GECs) were investigated. For this purpose, a series of GECs was prepared through dispersion of various WF of NG into epoxy resin, followed by curing with polyamine. Disunion of NG into epoxy matrix and onward formation of GECs and was revealed through Ultraviolet, Fourier transformed Infrared spectra and atomic force micrographs. Photoelastic analysis in combination with atomic force microscopy reveals the presence of uniformly dispersed domain of NG into stress free matrix of GECs with fringe order ranging 0.23 to 0.61 under compression of 8 to 20 kgf. GECs have rendered a rising trend in DC conductance ranging 98.32 nS/cm to 0.54 mu S/cm with electrical percolation threshold at 175 WF of NG. GECs have shown enhanced compressive, impact, tensile, strength, Rockwell hardness and wear resistance at 200WF of NG. In general, GECs has shown a marginal modification in their compressive strength by 5.30 % over cured epoxy (CE). However, impact (%) and tensile strengths (%) of GECs were largely improved to 31.78 and 43.98 over CE.