Study the Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Resin Reinforced with Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

In this research, the additive effect of magnesium oxide (MgO), zirconium oxide (ZrO2), and copper oxide (CuO)) nanoparticles to epoxy resin as a matrix have been studied, in addition to manufacturing hybrid composites from the same nanoparticles which are (CuO/ZrO2, MgO/ZrO2) to epoxy resin as a matrix too. The hand lay-up method is used for manufacturing the composites from the epoxy resin and the nanoparticles with different weight ratios ((0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9) wt%); the mechanical tests of all the prepared composites have been done. The results of the impact test show that increasing the weight ratio of the reinforcement materials increases the impact strength value for pure epoxy and the highest value of impact strength is due to the composite (EP-ZrO2) which is equal to 19.59 kJ/m(2). And the hardness test results showed that the hardness of the pure epoxy increases with increasing the weight ratios of the reinforcement materials and the highest value of hardness is due to the composite EP-MgO which is equal to 84.3. While the results of the bending (three points) test show that increasing the weight ratio of the reinforcement materials increases the deflection and the value of the fracture stress and the highest value of fracture stress at hybrid composite EP-MgO/ZrO2 which is equal to 4307.79 MPa.