Engineering Properties of Hybrid Polymer Composites Produced with Different Unsaturated Polyesters and Hybrid Epoxy

In this study, the mechanical properties of hybrid polymer composites produced with different unsaturated polyesters and hybrid epoxy resins are investigated. The composites were produced by blending unsaturated polyester resins (i.e., orthophthalic, isophthalic, and terephthalic) and bisphenol-A-based epoxy-vinyl ester resin to produce single, binary and ternary blends. In doing this, a total of 14 different combinations were produced. The results show that the binary and ternary polymer blends tend to improve almost all the tested properties of the polymer composites. Further, the fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results confirmed that the reason for enahcned properties is due to better crosslinking and longer chains of polymers produced in binary and ternary mixtures. The absence of peaks determining the styrene polymerization character for all mixtures also demonstrates that the polymerization reaction takes place in all mixtures. It is also believed that the binary and ternary resin mixtures have developed higher energy absorption compared to single resin composites. All of the mentioned has been achieved while the gelation temperatures of the hybrid resin mixtures were not changed significantly and the began gelation at the expected temperature values. Additionally, the gelation, peak exotherm temperatures, and barcol hardness values demonstrated that all mixtures achieved sufficient curing. The result of this study is significant and point to the great potential of producing high performance polymer composites through the use of binary or ternary resin mixtures.