Improved fracture toughness of carbon fibre/epoxy composite laminates using dissolvable thermoplastic fibres

This paper reports on a novel toughening concept based on dissolvable phenoxy fibres, which are added at the interlaminar region in a carbon fibre/epoxy composite. The composites were prepared by resin infusion of carbon fibre fabric with the phenoxy introduced as a chopped fibre interleaf between the carbon fibre plies. The thermoplastic phenoxy fibre dissolved in the epoxy during curing at elevated temperatures and a phase separated morphology...