A toughened epoxy resin by silica nanoparticle reinforcement

Abstract

Within this study the influence of adding 5 vol % of silica nanoparticles, obtained via a sol-gel process, on an Araldite-F epoxy was investigated. To characterize toughening effects, compact tension specimens were used to obtain K IC and G IC . Additionally, tensile strength and EModulus were measured as well as differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis were carried out to evaluate the influence on the thermal properties of the epoxy because of addition of the particles. Electronic microscopy was used to check dispersion quality and fracture surfaces, in transmission mode and scanning mode, respectively. The addition of 5 vol %. silica-nanoparticles could improve the stiffness and the toughness of an epoxy resin at the same time.

Epoxy resin composites with surface‐modified silicon dioxide nanoparticles: A review

“…Rosso et al 5 investigated the property improvements of piperidinecured DGEBA by modification with 5 wt % nanosilica. Although the tensile strength remained unchanged, the tensile modulus was increased by more than 20%.…”

Effect of silica nanoparticles on compressive properties of an epoxy polymer

“…In tension, cured epoxies failed at a very low tensile strain, e.g, about 8% strain at break as tested in [24]. However, in compression they exhibited a large plastic deformation, eg., up to 43% failure strain for pure Epikote 828 as shown in Fig.…”

“…Among these, crack deflection, filler/matrix debonding, shear yielding, shear banding and step formations have been proposed as applicable for nanoparticles modified epoxy systems [23,24,27,28].…”

“…There are several types of nanoparticles commercially available and commonly used for developing epoxy-nanocomposites, such as montmorillonite organoclay, nanosilica, carbon nanotubes and nanofibres. The incorporation of nanofiller into the epoxy matrix enhances toughness, Young's modulus and thermal resistance have been reported by several researchers [20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…The spherical silica nanoparticles were supplied as a colloidal sol in the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy, Nanopox F400, by Nanoresins AG, Geesthacht, Germany. The particles were synthesised from aqueous sodium silicate solution which then underwent organosilane and matrix exchange surface treatment processes to produce a 40 wt% nanosilica-epoxy masterbatch [24]. The viscosity of the F400 resin is relatively low due to fully dispersed nanosized silica.…”