The Effect of Interaction between Nanofillers and Epoxy on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Nanocomposites: Theoretical Prediction and Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Interfacial interaction between host matrix and nanofillers is a determinative parameter on the mechanical and thermal properties of nanocomposites. In this paper, we first investigated interaction between carbon nanotube (CNT) and montmorillonite clay (MMT) absorbing on epoxy surface in a theoretical study based on the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Results showed the interaction energy of -1.93 and -0.11 eV for MMT/epoxy and CNT/epoxy, respectively. Therefore, the interaction between epoxy polymer and MMT is of the chemisorptions type, while epoxy physically interacts with CNT. In addition, thermal and mechanical analyses were conducted on nanocomposites. In DSC analysis the glass transition temperature which was 70°C in neat epoxy composite showed an improvement to about 90°C in MMT nanocomposites while it was about 70°C for CNT nanocomposites. Finally, mechanical properties were investigated and MMT nanocomposite showed a change in compressive strength which increased from 52.60 Mpa to 72.07 and 92.98 Mpa in CNT and MMT nanocomposites, respectively. Also tensile strength improved to the value of 1250.69 Mpa MMT nanocomposites while it was about 890 Mpa in both CNT nanocomposite and neat epoxy composite which corresponds to the calculation result prediction.

Epoxy-based ZnO nanocomposites in various configurations: Corona discharges and thermal transition studies

“…Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and DSC thermographs revealed elevated T g and high activation energy for thermal degradation in the dopped materials, with micro-silica with nanopores demonstrating significantly higher interfacial performance than modified nanosilica fillers. Additionally, several DSC investigations [28][29][30] have been reported on epoxy-based nanodielectrics. However, they are solely concerned with the T g , demonstrating the significance of interfacial nanolayers in the rise or decay of the T g .…”

Synergistic effect between CuCr2O4 nanoparticles and plasticizer on mechanical properties of EP/PU/CuCr2O4 nanocomposites: Experimental approach and molecular dynamics simulation

“…Strong particle-epoxy interaction would improve the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. [31][32][33] Therefore, by determining the interaction energy, it is possible to investigate the effect of the CuCr 2 O 4 NPs on the mechanical properties of the EP/PU matrix. The MD simulation provides a useful way to investigate the interaction energy between nanofillers and the polymer matrix.…”

Multiscale analysis and experimental validation of the effective elastic modulus of epoxy-dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay composite

“…As a result of this, adoption of cost-effective, fast and dependable numerical frameworks for virtual characterization of new materials began to gain significant attention. Examples of these numerical approaches include Finite Element Analysis (FEA) [14], molecular dynamics simulation [15], quantum chemical/mechanical calculations [16] and statistical modeling [17].…”