The mechanical properties and fracture behaviour of epoxy-inorganic micro- and nano-composites
By A. Kinloch, A. C. Taylor. 2006
187 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Hybrid materials have been formed using an epoxy polymeric matrix and a range of inorganic particles, including mica and organically-modified montmorillonites (‘organoclays’), with various concentrations of the silicate modifier up to about 30 wt.% depending upon the viscosity increase induced by the presence of the silicate. Wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering plus transmission electron microscopy were used to identify the morphologies produced, which included particulate, intercalated and ordered exfoliated. The modulus of these composites increased with the weight fraction of silicate. The morphology had a small effect on the measured modulus; the nano-composites with the ordered exfoliated microstructure showing the highest values of the modulus for a given volume fraction of silicate. The fracture toughness, Kc, and the fracture energy, Gc, initially increased as the weight fraction of the silicate was increased, but then decreased at relatively high concentrations. The measured moduli and toughnesses were compared to theoretical predictions. The measured moduli values showed very good agreement with the predicted values, whilst the agreement for values of the measured fracture energy, Gc, with the predicted values, based upon a crack deflection toughening mechanism, were less convincing. Indeed, analysis of the fracture surfaces using scanning electron microscopy showed that the main toughening effect of the silicate particles is due to plastic deformation of the epoxy matrix around the particles.
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Citations in the corpus
- Improving the fracture toughness and the strength of epoxy using nanomaterials--a review of the current status. (2015, methodology): “40 Most of the reviewed data in this paper are based on the DGEBA epoxy”
- Toughening of Epoxy Nanocomposites: Nano and Hybrid Effects (2016, background): “It is found that there is an optimal clay loading to maximize the fracture toughness/energy of nanoclay/epoxy composites, since at higher loadings aggregation of clay platelets occurs.(17,177,181) (See fracture energy data for highly exfoliated and exfoliated clay in Fig.”
- Cracks, microcracks and fracture in polymer structures: Formation, detection, autonomic repair (2016, background): “When it comes to fillers with layered structures such as nano-clay or silicates (layered), crack-deflection, microcracking and plastic void growth are the major toughening mechanisms [314,315] and with the addition of graphene, crack deflection and crack pinning has been reported [316].”
- Nanocapsules for self-healing materials (2008, background): “Particle fillers can lead to fracture toughness increases by multiple phenomena including, but not limited to, crack pinning [14], crack bridging [15], microcracking [16], and crack deflection [17,18].”
- Energy absorption capability of nanocomposites: A review (2009, background): “Crack deflection [56,187,203,206–209,30], microcracks [187,64,46,188,33,208,39,210,42,67,28,206] and matrix deformation or void nucleation [56,187,63,188,107,39,208,211,212,30, 28,108] may appear in all kinds of micro-scale or nano-scale filler-reinforced composites.”
- Self-healing polymeric materials: A review of recent developments (2008, methodology): “achieved through selection of appropriate monomer and curing agent system [28, 29], varying the ratio of curing components [30-32], or use of additives or modifiers [33-35].”
- Carbon nanofibers enhance the fracture toughness and fatigue performance of a structural epoxy system (2011, background): “The formation of such additional surfaces during fracture is common to matrices reinforced with micrometer-sized particles and indicative of crack deflection [39].”