Abstract: Laminated structure is a major structure of fiber reinforced plastics, and delamination caused by weak interlaminar properties will cause a final failure to the laminates. In this paper, poly (ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) (EMAA) and carbon nanotube (CNT) are used to prepare two kinds of EMAA/CNT composite films, i.e., solid and porous membranes. Then, these two films were respectively introduced into the middle interface of glass fiber/epoxy laminates, and how the films affected the mode Ⅱ interlaminar fracture toughness (G_ⅡC) and its self-healing were studied. The results show that porous EMAA/CNT film has better toughening and self-healing properties. Compared with the glass fiber/epoxy blank laminate, porous EMAA/CNT film improves the G_ⅡC by 19.6%, which can be recovered to 92.5% after thermally self-healing. However, solid EMAA/CNT film would decrease the G_ⅡC by 27.5%, although the self-healing efficiency is 81.8%. Microscopic characterization shows that uniform distribution of the porous EMAA/CNT and epoxy at interlaminar interface plays a positive role in toughening and self-healing.

Key words: poly (ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) (EMAA), carbon nanotube (CNT), mode Ⅱ interlaminar fracture toughness, self-healing