The reinforcing effects of dendritic short carbon fibers for rigid polyurethane composites

The attainment of both strength and toughness was crucial for polymer composites . However, compared with the long fiber composites, conventional short fiber composites showed the low strength and toughness, due to the more stress concentrations generated around the fiber ends . In this work, a new morphological short carbon fiber reinforcement was fabricated by electrodeposition , which presented like the dendritic structure. The enhanced strength and toughness were realized by incorporating the dendritic short carbon fibers into rigid polyurethane (RPU) matrix. The tensile strength , impact strength and interfacial shear strength (ILSS) of the dendritic short carbon fibers/RPU composites were increased by 41.3%, 81.2% and 28.9%, respectively compared with pure RPU. The composites also exhibited the excellent dynamic mechanical properties . The satisfactory performance was mainly attributed to the pinning effect by the dendritic structure.