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Optimization of the thermal mending process in epoxy/cyclic olefin copolymer blends
Author(s) -
Dorigato Andrea,
Mahmood Haroon,
Pegoretti Alessandro
Publication year - 2021
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.49937
Subject(s) - materials science , epoxy , thermogravimetric analysis , composite material , ultimate tensile strength , thermal stability , copolymer , flexural strength , thermoplastic , toughness , izod impact strength test , dispersion (optics) , fracture toughness , thermoplastic elastomer , polymer , chemical engineering , physics , optics , engineering
Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) is utilized as thermoplastic healing agent in an epoxy resin and the effect of mending temperature on the healing of resulting materials is investigated. Blends are prepared by adding 20 and 30 wt% COC powder in the epoxy resin. They are thermo‐mechanically characterized and fractured samples are thermally mended at various temperatures to evaluate the healing efficiency of the repaired samples. Optical microscopy reveals a homogenous dispersion of COC domains within epoxy matrix, while thermogravimetric analysis shows improved thermal stability of the samples. The immiscibility of the two phases in the blends lead to a decrease of the mechanical properties under flexural and tensile loading modes with respect to neat epoxy. The fracture toughness increases upon COC addition at elevated amounts. Healing efficiency values up to more than 80% are obtained at the lowest investigated temperature of 145°C for samples with 30 wt% of COC.