Soon Ho Lim

Effects of mixing temperatures on the morphology and toughness of epoxy/polyamide blends

A new mixing process was explored to increase further the fracture toughness and to investigate the toughening mechanisms of epoxy/nylon blend. In this process, without mechanical mixing, the mixtures of epoxy and premade nylon 6 powder were heated without the curing agent to specific temperatures, referred to as the “mixing temperature.” For epoxy/nylon blends, at sufficiently high temperatures, a semi-interpenetrating network-like structure can be developed at the interphase via the reaction between the amine end group and the epoxide group. The depth of interphase and the extent of reaction depends on the mixing temperature. The strong dependency of the fracture energy on mixing temperature reveals the positive effect of the newly developed structure at the interphase. The increase of fracture toughness is possibly due to the enhanced crack fingering bifurcation/deflection mechanism resulting from the lamellae developed in the interphase and the enhanced plastic deformation of epoxy as a result of preyielding of the interphase.

Influence of Silane Coupling Agents on the Interlaminar and Thermal Properties of Woven Glass Fabric/Nylon 6 Composites

In this study, the influence of silane coupling agents, featuring different organo-functional groups on the interlaminar and thermal properties of woven glass fabric-reinforced nylon 6 composites, has been by means of shortbeam shear tests, dynamic mechanical analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results indicate that the fiber-matrix interfacial characteristics obtained using the different analytical methods agree well with each other. The interlaminar shear strengths (ILSS) of glass fabric/nylon 6 composites sized with various silane coupling agents are significantly improved in comparison with that of the composite sized commercially. ILSS of the composites increases in the order: Z-6076 with chloropropyl groups in the silanes >Z-6030 with methacrylate groups >Z-6020 with diamine groups; this trend is similar to that of results found in an earlier study of interfacial shear strength. The dynamic mechanical properties, the fracture surface observations, and the thermal stability also support the interfacial results. The improvement of the interfacial properties may be ascribed to the different chemical reactivities of the reactive amino end groups of nylon 6 and the organo-functional groups located at the ends of the silane chains, which results from the increased chemical reactivity in order chloropropyl >methacrylate >diamine.

Disordering of clay layers in the nylon 6 / clay nanocomposites prepared by anionic polymerization

As a preliminary work for the preparation of nylon 6/clay nanocomposites by reactive extrusion, nylon 6/clay nanocomposites were prepared by anionic polymerization in a flask. In order to investigate the effect of the intercalation of clay layers, the clay feeding times, such as in pre-mixing where the clay was fed before initiation of polymerization and in after-mixing method where the clay was fed after initiation of polymerization, were changed. The appearance of the WAXD peak of nanocomposites prepared by the pre-mixing method was obvious and the tensile strength was decreased compared with that of pure nylon 6, which indicates that the clay layers were not dispersed and distributed. During the preparation of the nanocomposites by the after-mixing method, disordering of the clay layers was observed with increasing clay addition time and was suspected to result from the rapid polymerization of nylon 6 within the clay layers.

The effect of crystalline morphology of poly (butylene terephthalate) phases on toughening of poly(butylene terephthalate)/epoxy blends

In an effort to investigate the effect of the crystalline morphology of a poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) phase on the toughening of PBT/epoxy blends, the blends, having different degrees of perfectness of the PBT crystalline phase, were prepared by blending PBT and epoxy at various temperatures ranging from 200 to 240 °C. As the blending temperature decreases, the degree of perfectness of the PBT crystalline phase increases as a result of the increase of crystal growth rate. For PBT/epoxy blends, the change in crystalline morphology induced by processing may be the most important cause for the dependency of the fracture energy on blending temperatures. It has been found that PBT phases with a well-developed Maltese cross are most effective for epoxy toughening. This dependency reveals the occurrence of a phase transformation toughening mechanism. Also, the higher relative enhancement of fracture energy of a higher molecular weight epoxy system is further indirect evidence for a phase transformation toughening mechanism. Some other toughening mechanisms observed from the fracture surfaces, such as crack bifurcation, crack bridging, and ductile fracture of PBT phases, have been found to also be affected by the blending temperatures.

Mechanical properties and failure mechanism of the polymer composite with 3-dimensionally stitched woven fabric

The mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of through-the-thickness stitched plain weave glass fabric/polyurethane foam/epoxy composites were studied. Hybrid composites were fabricated using resin infusion process (RIP). Stitched sandwich composite increased drastically the flexural properties as compared with the unstitched fabrics. The breaking of stitching yarns was observed during the flexural test and this failure mode yielded relatively high flexural properties. Composites with stitched sandwich structure improved the mechanical properties with increasing the number of stitching yarns. From this study, it was concluded that proper combination of stitching density and types of stitching fiber is important factor for through-the-thickness stitched composite panels.

Stereocomplex-Nanocomposite Formation of Polylactide/Fluorinated-Clay with Superior Thermal Property Using Supercritical Fluid

Abstract

Transverse Flow and Process Modeling on the Polymer Composite with 3-Dimensionally Stitched Woven Fabric

In resin infusion process(RIP), the fiber and the resin are in contact with each other for an impregnation step and often results in flow-induced defects such as poor fiber wetting and void formation. Resin flow characteristics in transverse direction and process modeling for woven fabric were studied, and the process modeling was applied to the manufacturing of hybrid composite materials. This study also considered the compressibility of woven fabrics in a series of compression force, and it was fitted well to an elastic model equation. Void formation was varied with the processing conditions in the stage of manufacturing composites using RIP. It was concluded from this study that proper combination of pressure build-up and dynamic heating condition makes important factor for flow-induced composite processing.