The hybridization effect on the mechanical and piezoresistive behavior of epoxy nanocomposites

Epoxy composites are used in a wide range of industrial applications due to their excellent mechanical properties. Furthermore, they can be functionalized by incorporating carbon-based nanomaterials, such as graphene with carbon nanotubes, to improve their mechanical performance and simultaneously provide an electrical response for very specific applications. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to analyze the mechanical and electrical properties of an epoxy resin reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for industrial applications. For this purpose, several systems involving different amounts of nano-reinforcements were produced and evaluated to determine the architecture that simultaneously maximizes the bending strength and electrical conductivity. The results showed that the hybridization with 0.25 wt.% CNT and 0.5 wt.% GNP led to the most pronounced increases in mechanical and piezoresistivity properties suggesting that hybrid nano-reinforcements have enormous potential for obtaining multifunctional and high-performance materials for structural and/or sensors applications.