Highly Toughened Nanostructured Self-Assembled Epoxy-Based Material—Correlation Study between Nanostructured Morphology and Fracture Toughness—Impact Characteristics

  • Vasudevan Pillay Remya
  • , Sundararajan Parani
  • , El Hadji Mamour Sakho
  • , Jose Varghese Rajendran
  • , Rodney Maluleke
  • , Thabang Calvin Lebepe
  • , Sam Masha
  • , Nishar Hameed
  • , Sabu Thomas
  • , Oluwatobi Samuel Oluwafemi

Research output: Contribution to a Journal (Peer & Non Peer)Articlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present an efficient and effective method for preparing a novel self-assembled nanostructured material with high toughness and impact strength from a blend of di-glycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and epoxidized poly(styrene-block-butadiene-block-styrene) (eSBS55) tri-block copolymer. The field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope results show the nanostructured morphological characteristics of the blends. This study achieved the highest fracture toughness, with a fracture toughness in the form of critical stress intensity factors (KIC) value of 2.54 MPa m1/2, in epoxy/block copolymer blends compared to previous works in the field. The impact strength also increased by 116% compared to neat epoxy. This is a major advancement in epoxy toughening due to the use of a single secondary phase. The resulting highly tough and impact-resistant material is a promising candidate for coating applications in industries such as flooring, building, aerospace, and automobiles.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1689
JournalPolymers
Volume15
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • fracture mechanism
  • highly toughened
  • impact strength
  • nanostructured
  • self-assembled

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