Abstract
At present, the most commonly used electrical insulating materials, including cold-curing epoxy resins, are well designed for normal operating conditions. However, new generations of materials should also be capable of withstanding extreme emergency conditions, e.g., in case of fire. For this reason, this study presents the possibilities of an improved cold-curing epoxy resin using halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) to increase its operational safety. The positive effect of HNT addition is indicated mainly in terms of the suppression of thermo-oxidation processes, which has been demonstrated by the decreases in the maximum heat flow peaks as well as the specific enthalpy values during the thermal decomposition of the epoxy resin. The observed dielectric parameters of the HNT-added materials differ only slightly from those without a filler, whereas their mechanical properties strongly depend on the amount of dispersed HNTs.
Highlights
Epoxy resins are one of the most widely used thermosetting plastics in electrotechnical applications [1], and they are mainly used due to beneficial properties such as their low shrinkage during curing, flexibility, strong adhesion to different substrates, chemical resistance, and excellent electrical insulating properties [2]
For the reasons mentioned above, the main aim of this study is to describe the effect of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) addition on the thermal, dielectric and mechanical properties of cold-curing epoxy-based composites (EP/HNTs)
SEM images of the EP/HNTs composite structures with different HNT filler concentrations are shown in Figure 2 Importantly, all images in Figure 2 are presented after additional adjustment of the color scale, brightness, contrast, and gamma correction in graphical software to highlight the HNT
Summary
Epoxy resins are one of the most widely used thermosetting plastics in electrotechnical applications [1], and they are mainly used due to beneficial properties such as their low shrinkage during curing, flexibility, strong adhesion to different substrates, chemical resistance, and excellent electrical insulating properties [2]. Since some electronic components are temperature sensitive, conventional potting materials cured at elevated temperatures cannot be used, and it is necessary to protect them by using cold-curing epoxy resins [7]. These resins are cured at ambient temperature, and the possibility of curing without additional equipment (curing oven) is advantageous.
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