A great improvement of tensile properties of C_f/AZ91D composite through grafting CNTs onto the surface of the carbon fibers

Effective load transfer interface is critical to improving the performance of metal matrix composites (MMCs). This paper proposes fabricating CNTs-grafted C_f/AZ91D composites in which the carbon fiber surface was grafted with the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process. The influence of microstructure on tensile properties of the composites was investigated by designing different experimental parameters. The fracture morphologies and SEM micrographs combined with EDS were examined to determine the strengthening and dispersion mechanism of CNTs grafted on the surface of carbon fibers in composites. The results indicates that introducing CNTs to the surface of the carbon fibers can smooth the transition of interfacial composition by forming the gradient interface layer. This means that the interface property is adjusted by grafting CNTs on the surface of carbon fibers, which is beneficial to the properties improvement of MMCs.