Investigation of thermo-mechanical properties of surface treated SiO2/epoxy nanocomposite

Abstract The present work investigates the effect of surface-treated SiO2 nanoparticles on the thermo-mechanical property of epoxy-composites. The surface interactions between the SiO2 nanoparticles and epoxy matrix were improved by surface treatment of SiO2 nanoparticle with different functionalization agents. Four functionalization agents namely 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxy silane (GPTMS), 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane (APTES), 3-(2-aminoethyl amino)-propyl trimethoxy silane (AEAPTMS), and 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (TMPM) were employed for the surface-treatment of SiO2 nanoparticles. No significant change in particle size of SiO2 was observed after surface-treatment, however significant improvement in mechanical properties was observed. It was observed that the percentage elongation and fracture toughness improved significantly with surface modification of the nanoparticles. Fracture toughness (K1C) and fracture energy (G1C) were calculated to be 5.62 MPa.m1/2 and 65.81 KJ/m2, respectively, for pristine silica-epoxy nanocomposite, whereas these values increase to 9.3 MPa.m1/2 and 124.27 kJ/m2 with the dispersion of GPTE treated 1 wt% SiO2 nanoparticles. The value of storage modulus was increased by 159.64% for GPMT modified SiO2 nanoparticles. Thus, surface-treated SiO2-epoxy nanocomposites exhibited improved thermo-mechanical properties.