Experimental study on the mechanical properties of an epoxy-based nanocomposite using polymeric alloying and different nano-reinforcements: nanofiber, nanolayered and nanoparticulate materials

This study investigated the effect of four different types of reinforcements on the mechanical properties of an epoxy system. The epoxy resin used was diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) cured by cycloaliphatic polyamine. These four mechanisms use a multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) as a nanofiber, clay as a nanolayer, SiO2 as a particulate nanofiller and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) for polymeric alloying. The properties that were studied are tensile, compression and flexural resistance. We used solvent mechanism to prepare homogeneous mixture samples. The test results were compared between different weight percent loading of each reinforcement and also between different mechanisms. Also, the morphological properties of DGEBA/CNT, DGEBA/clay, DGEBA/SiO2 and DGEBA/HIPS were studied using scanning electron microscopy. Generally, the comparison between the results led the authors to conclude that among the mentioned mechanisms, using silica nanofillers is the most effective way to enhance the mechanical properties of an epoxy resin.