A molecular dynamics assisted insight on damping enhancement in carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites with oriented multilayer graphene oxide

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites with high damping performance have been required in diverse applications. The interlayer slip characteristics of the graphene family offer a clear benefit in enhancing the damping performance of materials. In this study, an oriented graphene oxide (GO) structure was designed on the carbon fiber surface to enhance the damping capacity of the composites. The molecular dynamics method was proposed to investigate the damping mechanism of multilayer GO-reinforced polymer composites based on energy dissipation, which is consistent with the results revealed by dynamic mechanical analysis. Under a wide range of loading strain, vibration frequency, and temperature, GO induces a higher loss factor/lower quality factor of the composite materials. The visualization of the atomic displacement field demonstrates that the sliding of multilayer GO during vibration enhances the mutual friction among polymer segments, leading to a pronounced increase in the energy loss. Notably, substantial enhancements in damping properties were observed with thicker GO coatings. This is due to the fact that the uniformly distributed shear stresses are more likely to activate interlayer slip, and higher frictional forces consume more mechanical energy.