Mechanical and thermal behavior of clay/epoxy nanocomposites

A. Yasmin, J. J. Luo, J. L. Abot, I. M. Daniel*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

276 Scopus citations

Abstract

Clay/epoxy nanocomposites with concentrations of 1-10 wt.% of clay particles were prepared by shear mixing. The mechanical and viscoelastic behavior of nanocomposites was investigated using a servohydraulic testing machine and a dynamic mechanical analyzer, respectively. It was found that the addition of clay particles improved both the elastic modulus and storage modulus of pure epoxy significantly and the higher the clay content, the higher the modulus of the nanocomposite. The elastic modulus of the nanocomposites was also measured at elevated temperatures and was found to decrease gradually with temperature followed by a sudden drop at Tg, which showed a monotonic drop with increasing clay content. However, the effect of thermal exposure above Tg was found not to affect their room temperature elastic modulus. The thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of both pure epoxy and nanocomposites was measured using a thermomechanical analyzer and it was found that the incorporation of clay particles reduced the CTE of pure epoxy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2415-2422
Number of pages8
JournalComposites Science and Technology
Volume66
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2006

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the grant support from the NASA University Research, Engineering and Technology Institute on Bio Inspired Materials (BIMat) under award No. NCC-1-02037.

Keywords

  • A. Nanostructures
  • A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
  • B. Stress/strain curves
  • B. Thermomechanical properties
  • D. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ceramics and Composites
  • General Engineering

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