Authors: M AlQadhi N Merah Z M Gasem
Publish Date: 2013/02/06
Volume: 48, Issue: 10, Pages: 3798-3804
Abstract
Nanocomposites based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A DGEBA epoxy reinforced with 1–10 wt I30E nanoclay were fabricated using high shear mixing technique and characterized to determine the effects of clay loading on their mechanical thermal and water uptake properties The XRD and TEM analyses revealed that the structures of the resultant nanocomposites were a combination of disordered intercalated and exfoliated morphologies Tensile strength increased for nanocomposite containing 1 clay loading and decreased for higher nanoclay loading Unlike strength the stiffness increased almost linearly with clay loading showing 46 improvement in modulus of elasticity for nanocomposites containing 5 of nanoclay Water uptake measurements indicated enhancement in the barrier properties of epoxy matrix as nanoclay loading increased from 1 up to 5 wtThe authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology KACST through the Science Technology Unit at King Fahd University of Petroleum Minerals KFUPM for funding this work through Project No 08ADV6804 as part of the National Science Technology and Innovation Plan
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