The effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles on thermo-physical properties of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A/2,2′-Diamino-1 1′-binaphthalene nanocomposites

In this study the curing, thermal degradation kinetics and mechanical properties of epoxy resin based on the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A, 2,2'-Diamino-1,1 '-binaphthalene as a hardener and ZnO as a nanofiller were investigated. The higher thermal and mechanical properties were obtained with a percentage of 5 phr of ZnO nanoparticles. A two-parameter (m, n) autocatalytic model (Sestak Berggren equation) was found to be the most adequate selected kinetic model. In addition, the predicted curves from the kinetic model fit well with the dynamic DSC thermograms. The addition of ZnO nanoparticles into the epoxy matrix resulted in a significant increment in the thermal stability and activation energy of thermal degradation. The epoxy nanocomposite exhibited an increase in storage modulus and glass transition temperature compared to the neat epoxy. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.