Development and characterization of epoxy syntactic foam filled with epoxy hollow spheres

The present study focuses on the development and characterization of epoxy syntactic foam filled with epoxy hollow spheres (ESF/EHoS). The epoxy syntactic foam (ESF) was produced by embedding epoxy hollow spheres (EHoS) into a mixture of epoxy-hardener and 3% KOH solution. An innovative approach and simple procedure was implemented in the preparation of the EHoS where expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads were used as initiation material. The EPS beads were coated with the epoxy resin and these coated EPS beads were later cured and post-cured at high temperature which will also shrink the EPS beads thus producing a hollow structure. The physical and compressive properties of the developed ESF were characterized. The progressive collapse of the syntactic foam was monitored in real-time with respect to percentage of strain during a compression test. Results also indicated that the (ESF/EHoS) showed similar deformation pattern with other types of syntactic foams which exhibited the common three regions of deformations.