Effect of crosslink density on fracture behavior of model epoxies containing block copolymer nanoparticles Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Model diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A based epoxy resins containing well-dispersed 15 nm block copolymer (BCP) nanoparticles were prepared to study the effect of matrix crosslink density on their fracture behavior. The crosslink density of the model epoxies was varied via the controlled epoxy thermoset technology and estimated experimentally. As expected, it was found that the fracture toughness of the BCP-toughened epoxy is strongly influenced by the crosslink density of the epoxy matrix, with higher toughenability for lower crosslink density epoxies. Key operative toughening mechanisms of the above model BCP-toughened epoxies were found to be nanoparticle cavitation-induced matrix shear banding for the low crosslink density epoxies. The toughening effect from BCP nanoparticles was also compared with core-shell rubber-toughened epoxies having different levels of crosslink density. The usefulness of the present findings for designing toughened thermosetting materials with desirable properties is discussed. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

published proceedings

  • POLYMER

author list (cited authors)

  • Liu, J. D., Sue, H., Thompson, Z. J., Bates, F. S., Dettloff, M., Jacob, G., Verghese, N., & Pham, H. a.

citation count

  • 91

complete list of authors

  • Liu, Jia Daniel||Sue, Hung-Jue||Thompson, Zachary J||Bates, Frank S||Dettloff, Marv||Jacob, George||Verghese, Nikhil||Pham, Ha

publication date

  • January 2009