Fracture properties of epoxy/poly(styrene-co-allylalcohol) blends

The epoxy/polystyrene system is characterized by a poor adhesion between the constituent phases, which determines its mechanical properties. The adhesion can be improved via blends based on epoxy resin and random copolymers, poly(styrene-co-allylalcohol) (PS-co-PA). In this work, the influence of PS-co-PA content and the good adhesion between the phases on the tensile properties and the fracture toughness achieved through instrumented Charpy tests have been investigated. The tensile strength and the deformation at break showed an increase in the PS-co-PA content while the Young's modulus remained the same. The tensile fracture surfaces revealed that the improvement of these magnitudes was mainly due to a crack deflection mechanism. Also, the fracture toughness of the blends was superior to that of the pure epoxy resin. The main operating toughening mechanism was crack deflection. The fractographic analysis showed that similar to 80% of the particles were broken, and the crack tended to divert from its original path through the broken PS-co-PA particles. The remaining particles were detached from the epoxy resin, and the holes left suffered plastic deformation. Analytical models were used to predict successfully the toughness due to these mechanisms. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.