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Epoxy/alumina nanoparticle composites. I. Dynamic mechanical behavior
Author(s) -
Vassileva E.,
Friedrich K.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.12463
Subject(s) - materials science , epoxy , composite material , nanoparticle , agglomerate , particle (ecology) , slippage , modulus , relaxation (psychology) , softening , dynamic mechanical analysis , particle size , polymer , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , psychology , social psychology , oceanography , geology , engineering
We studied the influence that alumina nanoparticle addition has on the dynamic mechanical spectra of an amino‐cured epoxy resin. A suppression of the short‐scale cooperative motions related to the β relaxation and an increase in the activation energy for the β relaxation of the epoxy matrix was observed as the alumina content increased. This is explained in terms of an antiplasticization effect of the alumina nanoparticles on the epoxy resin. An estimation of the effective thickness of the nanoparticle–matrix interfacial region was done based on the reduced damping. The dependence of the composites' reduced modulus on the alumina nanoparticles content is very well fitted by the generalized Kerner equation. The best‐fit parameter values suggest the presence of small and strong agglomerates in the composites at room temperature. At temperatures above the T g , these agglomerates start to behave as weak ones because of the polymer matrix softening and particle–particle and particle–matrix slippage and friction. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 3774–3785, 2003