Nanocomposite microstructures dominating anisotropic elastic modulus in carbon fibers

Abstract Nanocomposite microstructures dominating the anisotropic elastic properties in carbon fibers were studied, to construct a micromechanics model that can explain the anisotropic elastic properties of carbon fibers. Aluminum-based composites containing five types of carbon fibers were prepared, and their anisotropic elastic properties were measured using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy combined with electromagnetic acoustic resonance. Then, all the independent elastic stiffness components of the carbon fibers were extracted from those of the composites using a composite model based on Eshelby's inclusion theory, Mori–Tanaka mean-field theory, and effective-medium approximation. Moreover, we newly developed a nanocomposite microstructure model that can fully reproduce all the anisotropic constants of carbon fibers exhibiting a wide variety of Young's moduli. In the developed model, the microstructures of carbon fibers were approximated as nanocomposites comprised of an amorphous carbon matrix and graphite-crystal inclusions that are aggregations of graphite nanocrystallites. Based on this nanocomposite microstructure model, the shape of the graphite-crystal inclusions and the elastic properties of the amorphous carbon matrix were analyzed, considering the volume fraction and orientation of the graphite nanocrystallites, as determined using X-ray diffraction. The analysis revealed that the shapes of the graphite-crystal inclusions are flat ellipsoids elongated along the fiber axis, and the aspect ratio of the graphite-crystal inclusions dominantly affects the anisotropy in the Young's modulus. This indicates that the graphite nanocrystallites are connected along the in-plane directions of the graphitic layers, and not the shape of nanocrystallites but their two-dimensional connectivity dominates the anisotropic elastic modulus in carbon fibers.