Enhancing the Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Dicyanate Ester of Bisphenol-A/Bisphenol-A Based Benzoxazine Resin Blend by Using Short Glass Fibers

Abstract

The clue of this present work reported in this manuscript was to combine the properties of thermosetting resin blends composed of dicyanate ester of bisphenol-A (DCBA) and bisphenol-A based benzoxazine (BA-a) resin with those of short glass fibers in order to produce novel functional materials. To achieve this objective, various amounts of short glass fibers were surface modified using the silanization technique, sandwiched within the DCBA/BA-a resin blend using the hand-up lay technique, and then cured using the compression molding technique under the pressure of 25 MPa. The characterisation of the produced composites was experimentally conducted by performing the structural, morphological, mechanical, and thermal analyses. According to the mechanical results, the tensile, bending and impact strength results revealed that the addition of the fibers assisted the DCBA/BA-a resin composites to possess superior mechanical properties over the pure polymers. The thermal stabilities of the DCBA/BA-a resin composites were also substantially improved and were noticeably higher to a large extent than those of the unfilled resin blends. These aforementioned enhancements were further investigated by performing the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and the scanning electron microscopy analyses that showed good dispersion and interfacial adhesion between the different constituents of the produced materials. Therefore, the distinguished mechanical and thermal properties promote the use of the manufactured composites in domestic and industrial applications requiring functional polymers with advanced properties such as aerospace and military applications.