Epoxy-Clay Nanocomposites and Hybrids: Synthesis and Characterization

This paper deals with the effect of clay addition on improving the mechanical properties of epoxy polymer and glass fiber-reinforced epoxy-clay hybrid composites. The clays used in the present system were alkyl ammonium treated montmorillonite (MMT) based organoclay (OC) and unmodified MMT clay (UC). The OC and UC were added individually to epoxy polymer and glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites. Structure and morphology of epoxy filled with OC and UC were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques. It is observed that the clay nanolayer dispersion takes place in a polymer matrix filled with OC particles. However, the UC filled composites show the formation of micro-composites. The effects of clay addition (1-3%, 5% and 10% by weight) in epoxy polymer shows that OC filled composites possess enhanced tensile strength over UC filled composites. A similar result is observed in the OC filled glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) of hybrids show that the addition of OC increases the thermal properties of epoxy-glass fiber more than that of UC filled hybrids.