Issue 4, 2022

Enhancing the mechanical strength and toughness of epoxy resins with linear POSS nano-modifiers

Abstract

Glass transition temperature (Tg) always deteriorates while improving the strength of epoxy resins which inherently suffer from brittleness. Herein, novel linear polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-epoxy nano-modifiers are synthesized with variable contents of POSS. The thermomechanical properties and chemical structure study of the POSS-epoxy indicates significant differences of the rigid POSS content in the linear nano-modifiers. By taking advantage of the synergistic effect of nanofillers and linear polymers, the modifiers disperse at the molecular level when POSS-epoxy is utilized as a co-curing agent for epoxy resins, allowing the applied force to be transferred into the polymer matrix. A good balance of Tg, stiffness, and fracture toughness can be obtained. At 5 wt% of the nano-modifier, the resultant epoxy resins showed 27% enhancement in the Young's modulus relative to the neat epoxy. In addition, the Tg and strength of epoxy thermosets are improved due to the increased cross-linking density, rough surface and tortuous path that resulted in good dispersion of energy during crack propagation.

Graphical abstract: Enhancing the mechanical strength and toughness of epoxy resins with linear POSS nano-modifiers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 10 2021
Accepted
27 12 2021
First published
07 1 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2022,4, 1151-1157

Enhancing the mechanical strength and toughness of epoxy resins with linear POSS nano-modifiers

H. Chi, G. Zhang, N. Wang, Y. Wang, T. Li, F. Wang and C. Ye, Nanoscale Adv., 2022, 4, 1151 DOI: 10.1039/D1NA00757B

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