Characterization of epoxy composites reinforced with CaCO3-Al2O3-MgO-TiO2/CuO filler materials

In this work, two varying types of composites with a fixed weight percentage of plain woven glass fiber and epoxy reinforced with four different types of filler materials such as one with CaCO3-Al2O3-MgO-TiO2 and another with CaCO3-Al2O3-MgO-CuO at different weight ratios (5, 10 and 15 gm) are studied. The composite specimens required for different tests are fabricated in conventional wet hand lay-up technique followed by same light compression molding process as per ASTM standards. Thermal stability and mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength of the composites were investigated and hybrid effect of filler materials and their dispersion efficiency was observed through the examination of their microstructure with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). From the results it is found that tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength are increased with increasing amount of filler materials. However, significant improvement in thermal stability and mechanical properties such as tensile strength (20.353%), flexural strength (26.652%) and impact strength (12.935%) is observed in case of the composite made of CuO than that of the composite made of TiO2. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.