Special issue on “Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRCs)” in the journal “Materials”
Current market value of Carbon fiber reinforced composites CFRCs is ~ USD 37 billion. This is only an indication of the utility of CFRCs is wide range of products influencing almost all spheres of human activity, ranging from health, agriculture, communication, transportation, energy, construction, defense, and space exploration. Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRCs) are emerging as metal substitutes with applications in space exploration, military aircraft components, ship and submarine manufacturing, renewable energy industry (as blades of wind turbine), and automobile industry. In principle, CFRCs can be used in all the applications where light weight and high strength of the materials is required. The main load bearing component of the CFRCs is the carbon fiber owing to high specific strength and light weight of the CFs. However, the surface of CFs is chemically inert making compatibility between CF surface and polymer matrix a problem. As a result there is week bonding at the interface between the CF surface and the polymer matrix. Innovative strategies are being developed to modify the surface of CFs to make the surface rough and chemically reactive and to design a strong interfacial bonding between the CF surface and polymer matrix leading to the increase in the usefulness of the CFRCs many a fold due to enhancement in critical properties of the CFRCs like interfacial shear strength (IFSS). CFRCs have a rich chemistry of over 5 decades with the first report being a patent titled “Carbon fiber/polyester or epoxy resin composites” dating back to 1968. Following this report, there have been over 51, 567 reports on the subject of “Carbon fiber reinforced composites” till date (20/1/2022) as evident from the web of science search with the key words “Carbon fiber reinforced composites” showing the remarkable growth of the field.
The special issue titled “Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRC’s)”aimsat the fusion of vast amount of knowledge available in scientific literature lasting over a span of 50 years from 1968 to 2022 leading to a better vision and thorough understanding of the structure, composition and properties of the interface of CFRCs through publishing original research papers and review articles on this subject.
Scope:
1. Carbon fibers (CFs) – Synthesis, structure, properties and surface modification
2. Sizing of carbon fibers for improved adhesion of CFs and polymer matrix
3. Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRCs)
4. Application of CFRC’s in defense, transportation, renewable energy, infrastructure, space exploration
5. Role of the interface on the properties of CFRCs
6. Methods of characterization of interface of CFRPs: XRD, Spectroscopy (XPS, Raman, FT IR, Magnetic resonance, ToF-SIMS, NMR, EPR), Microscopy (SEM-EDAX, TEM, AFM, Fluorescence), Chromatography – Inverse gas chromatography (IGC), Mechanical methods (Singe fiber methods), Electro analytical methods;
7. Future directions in CFRC research
Guest Editors:
Dr Indra Neel Pulidindi
Scientific consultant
Jesus’s Scientific Consultancy for Industrial and Academic Research (JSCIAR)
Email: indraneelp@jesusconsultancy.com
Dr Yang Chongchong
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Email: chchyang@sjtu.edu.cn