Comparsion of mechanical properties of EPON 862/W with and without teos electrospun nanofibers in nanocomposites

Nanocomposites fabricated using epoxy resin systems modifed with nanofibers are likely to play an important role in various automotive, aerospace, marine and other applications where poymeric resins are widely used. Polymer nanofibers and glass nanofibers are of, considerable interest in many applications as secondary reinforcement in structural composites. In the present study, epoxy resin was modified with chopped electrospun glass nanofibers. The electrospinning technique is an effective method of producing uniform diameter nanofibers with both random and oriented fiber mats. Tetraethyl Orthosilicate (TEOS) sol-gel was used to produce uniform thickness of nonwoven nanofiber mat. This paper presents fabrication and testing of two phase nanocomposites. Paper presents comparison of mechanical properties of EPON 862/W resin system with and without TEOS electropsun nanofibers (ENFs). Two different types of nanoreinforcements were investigated, the first one used chopped nanofiners with weight percentages ranging from 0.08% to 0.4 % of resin weight in nanocomposites. The second type of nanocomposites were fabricated using nanofiber mats rather than chopped nano fibers. All nanocomposite panels were fabricated with uniform thickness and were tested using ASTM standards. The present study indicated that chopped nanofibers disperesed in epoxy resinunder tensile loading have better mechanical properties as compared to the properties of nanocomposites fabricated using TEOS elecrospun nanofiber mats and neat resin.