{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,19]],"date-time":"2026-09-19T02:34:23Z","timestamp":1789785263657,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,29]],"date-time":"2021-07-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627516800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Polymers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Functionalized polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were used in the present investigation to enhance the fracture behavior of carbon epoxy composite in order to prevent delamination if any crack propagates in the resin rich area. The main intent of this investigation was to analyze the efficiency of PAN nanofiber as a reinforcing agent for the carbon fiber-based epoxy structural composite. The composites were fabricated with stacked unidirectional carbon fibers and the PAN powder was functionalized with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and then used as reinforcement. The fabricated composites\u2019 fracture behavior was analyzed through a double cantilever beam test and the energy release rate of the composites was investigated. The neat PAN and functionalized PAN-reinforced samples had an 18% and a 50% increase in fracture energy, respectively, compared to the control composite. In addition, the samples reinforced with functionalized PAN nanofibers had 27% higher interlaminar strength compared to neat PAN-reinforced composite, implying more efficient stress transformation as well as stress distribution from the matrix phase (resin-rich area) to the reinforcement phase (carbon\/phase) of the composites. The enhancement of fracture toughness provides an opportunity to alleviate the prevalent issues in laminated composites for structural operations and facilitate their adoption in industries for critical applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/polym13152509","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,29]],"date-time":"2021-07-29T21:21:21Z","timestamp":1627593681000},"page":"2509","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Efficient Improvement in Fracture Toughness of Laminated Composite by Interleaving Functionalized Nanofibers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2574-065X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seyed Mohammad Javad","family":"Razavi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Richard Birkelands vei 2b, 7491 Trondheim, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6988-3898","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rasoul Esmaeely","family":"Neisiany","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials and Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar 9617976487, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Moe","family":"Razavi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 8415683111, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Afsaneh","family":"Fakhar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 8415683111, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5247-3390","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vigneshwaran","family":"Shanmugam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai 602105, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vasudevan","family":"Alagumalai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai 602105, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7140-4737","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"F\u00f6rsth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil, Structural and Fire Engineering Division, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gabriel","family":"Sas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil, Structural and Fire Engineering Division, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Oisik","family":"Das","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil, Structural and Fire Engineering Division, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"344","DOI":"10.1002\/mame.201300107","article-title":"Influence of Surfactant Modification on Structure and Properties of CNT Hybrid Multiscale Composites","volume":"299","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Macromol. 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