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Morphologies and properties of epoxy resin/layered silicate–silica nanocomposites
Author(s) -
Jia Qingming,
Zheng Maosheng,
Cheng Jun,
Chen Hongxiang
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.2074
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocomposite , montmorillonite , epoxy , composite material , scanning electron microscope , transmission electron microscopy , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , silicate , toughness , ternary operation , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , computer science , engineering , programming language
A new nanofiller containing layered organo‐modified montmorillonite (oMMT) and spherical silica (SiO 2 ) was prepared by an in situ deposition method and coupling agent modification. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy show that there are interactions between oMMT and SiO 2 , and the spherical SiO 2 particles are self‐assembled on the edge of oMMT layers, forming a novel layered–spherical nanostructure. An epoxy resin (EP)/oMMT–SiO 2 nanocomposite was obtained by adding oMMT–SiO 2 to EP matrix. Morphologies and mechanical and thermal properties of the new ternary nanocomposite were investigated. For purposes of comparison, the corresponding binary nanocomposites, i.e., EP modified with either oMMT or SiO 2 , were also tested. The results for the mechanical properties show that oMMT obviously improves the strength of EP, and SiO 2 enhances the toughness of EP, but oMMT–SiO 2 exhibits a synergistic effect on toughening and reinforcing of EP. The toughening and reinforcing mechanism is explained by scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the thermal resistance of EP/oMMT–SiO 2 is better than that of EP/SiO 2 , but it is worse than that of EP/oMMT. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry