Dispersion of carbon nanofibres in a low viscosity resin by calendering process to manufacture multiscale composites by VARIM

The use of mechanical processes, such as calendering, is an interesting method to disperse carbon nanofibres because this technique avoids the use of organic solvents needed in chemical methods. Variations of the process are used by researchers, and further study of the effect of the calendering parameters is still needed. For this reason, the effectiveness of the dispersion of several percentages of carbon nanofibres (0.5-3 wt.%) in epoxy resin using different parameters of the calendering process has been studied in this work. Carbon nanofibres/epoxy nanocomposites and non-cured nanoreinforced mixtures have been characterised. This study showed that the dispersion was enhanced with a Sequential method. Density and thermomechanical properties of nanocomposites manufactured by the selected calendering method were evaluated. The viscosity of the CNF/epoxy mixtures at different percentages of nanoreinforcement was adequate to use them as a matrix in multiscale reinforced composites.