Effect of MXene Reinforcement on Bending Behavior of Glass Fiber-Epoxy Based Laminated Composites

MXene, a 2D transition metal carbide and nitrides with graphene-like structure, have grabbed considerable attention owing to certain inherent advantages such as a high specific surface area, high processability, surface chemistry and quantum size effect. MXene has tremendous potential as a reinforcement, especially for polymer composites. In the current study, experimental and numerical characterization of MXene (Ti3C2Tx) reinforced glass fiber-epoxy laminated nanocomposites has been carried out. The glass fiber-epoxy laminated nanocomposites reinforced with varying amount of MXene were fabricated using vacuum assisted hand layup technique and subsequently three-point bending and microhardness test was performed in order to assess their mechanical properties. Furthermore, the laminated nanocomposites were modelled in ANSYS ACP and their bending properties were characterized and verified experimentally. A very good agreement was observed between the numerical and experimental investigations. It was also observed that incorporation of MXene led to a significant enhancement in the flexural properties and hardness of the glass fiber-epoxy laminated composite; the flexural strength of 0.5 wt% MXene reinforced composite exhibited 37% higher flexural strength and 30% higher microhardness as compared to the neat epoxy laminated composite.