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Simultaneous improvement in strength, toughness, and thermal stability of epoxy/halloysite nanotubes composites by interfacial modification

  • Pan Sun
  • , Guoming Liu*
  • , Dong Lv
  • , Xia Dong
  • , Jingshen Wu
  • , Dujin Wang
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

Abstract

This work investigated the effect of silane modification of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on the mechanical properties of epoxy/HNTs nanocomposites. Three kinds of silane coupling agents, including 3-(2-aminoethyl)-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (AEAPS), (3-glycidyloxypropyl)-trimethoxysilane (GPTMS), and octyltriethoxysilane (OTES), were employed. It was shown that the modified HNTs exhibited a better dispersion in the epoxy matrix compared with pristine one. Because of strong interfacial interaction between AEAPS modified HNTs and the epoxy matrix, the nanocomposites exhibited the highest glass transition temperature and modulus among all the samples. On the other hand, AEAPS and GPTMS modified HNTs/epoxy nanocomposites showed enhanced tensile strength and toughness. The toughing mechanisms were identified by the SEM micrographs of the fracture surfaces of the different kinds of samples. In this study, simultaneous enhancement of strength, toughness, and thermal stability of epoxy by the modified HNTs provides a novel approach to produce high-performance thermosets.

Original languageEnglish
Article number43249
JournalJournal of Applied Polymer Science
Volume133
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Apr 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords

  • composites
  • graphene and fullerenes
  • mechanical properties
  • nanotubes
  • thermosets

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