科研之友
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摘要
Epoxy resins are brittle because of their tight three-dimensional molecular network structures. In an attempt to overcome this issue, epoxies incorporating a combination of nanoclay (used for nano-reinforcement) and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS, used as the thermoplastic phase) were synthesized and tested in this work. The tensile, flexural, compressive, and impact strengths of these materials were evaluated. Various factors can influence these properties of hybrid nanocomposites during the preparation of such materials, so an artificial neural network (ANN) was employed to determine the effects of the clay, HIPS, and hardener loadings on the mechanical properties of the epoxy/HIPS/nanoclay nanocomposites and to develop models for predicting their mechanical behavior. A genetic algorithm (GA), a powerful optimization method, was employed to determine a fitness function that could calculate the optimum values of these mechanical properties. The results obtained indicated that the new ternary nanocomposites possess tensile, compressive, and impact strengths were improved up to 60 %, 64 %, and 402 %, respectively higher than those of the neat resin, although they did not show enhanced flexural strength. The tensile, flexural, and copmressive elongations at break were improved up to 53%, 38%, and 27% greater than those of neat epoxy, respectively. In addition, the fracture surface morphologies of the ternary nanocomposites were investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties of the new ternary nanocomposites showed that they possess enhanced toughness compared to neat epoxy resin.
- 出版日期2013-6
