Mechanical properties of carbonfi ber/cellulose composite papers modified by hot-melting fibers

Carbon fiber (CF)/cellulose (CLS) composite papers were prepared by papermaking techniques and hot-melting fibers were used for modi-fication. The mechanical properties of the obtained composite papers with different CF, CLS and hot-melting fiber ratios were studied and furtherdiscussed. It is observed that, for both CF/CLS composite papers and those modifi ed by hot-meltingfi bers, the normal stress fi rstly increases andthen declines with the addition of carbon fibers. The results also show that with the addition of hot-melting fi bers, the modi fied papers exhibitenhanced mechanical performance compared to CF/CLS composite papers. Through SEM characterization, it is con firmed that the improvementof mechanical properties attributes to the reinforcement of adhesive binding at the fi ber overlap nodes. Also, through four-probe method, theresistivity and the electrical performance of the modi fied and unmodi fi ed papers were characterized and the result shows that the hot-melting fi bermodification brings no harm to the electrical properties.