"Effect of Nanofiller on the Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composites under Different Aging Conditions"

Surface-treated MWCNTs were purchased (Zhongke Nano Materials Co., Ltd., Chengdu,  China), and they were treated with a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid (3:1), which introduced oxidation groups on the CNTs.

The MWCNTs were stirred evenly in an  acetone solvent for 2 h to obtain MWCNT acetone dispersion. Then, the MWCNT acetone dispersion was added to an E51 solution to achieve 0.5 wt.% content and sonicated at about 60 Cforanother 2 h under a power of 40 kHz. Surface-treated halloysite nanoclay (Mingchuang Materials Co., Ltd., Xi’an, China) was added to an appropriate amount of epoxy resin to achieve 2 wt.% content under stirring for 2 h at 25 C. Then, the nanoclay-resin mixture was taken out.