Effects of defects and functional groups on graphene and nanotube thermoset epoxy-based nanocomposites mechanical properties using molecular dynamics simulation

In this article, several thermoset epoxy-based nanocomposites are simulated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Epoxy resin with 75% crosslinking ratio is modeled first and its properties are used as the matrix material mechanical properties. The effects of defects and functional groups on carbon nanotube- and nanographene-reinforced epoxy nanocomposites are investigated. To achieve our goals, various types of defects and functional groups are created on graphene and nanotube in the MD models. The defects consist of Stone–Wales, vacancy, and Adatom. In addition, functional groups consist of O, OH, COOH, and NH ₂ . Mechanical properties of nanocomposites are determined and compared. Moreover, nanocomposites consisting of continuous and short reinforcements are modeled to investigate the effects of reinforcement length on nanocomposite mechanical properties. Numerical results show that defects and functional groups reduce the elastic modulus of the nanofillers and nanocomposites in continuous nanofiller-reinforced epoxy. However, in nanocomposites consisting of short nanofillers, defects and functional groups have mixed effects on nanocomposite mechanical properties.