Mechanical behavior and thermal stability of ultrasonically synthesized halloysite-epoxy composite

Abstract

Abstract The present investigation deals with a preparation and characterization of composites based on epoxy reinforced under different loading rates of halloysite nanotubes (HNT’s) according to thermal stability and their morphological behavior. It has been found that there is appreciable increase in thermal stability and mechanical properties with the incorporation of HNT’s in epoxy matrix and these properties have been found maximum at 3 wt% loading of HNT’s in epoxy matrix. In particular, 30.7% increase in thermal stability has been achieved and 110.5%, 55.4%, 25.9%, increase in impact strength, ultimate tensile strength and flexural strength respectively for HNT’s (3 wt%) epoxy composite. Subsequently, hardness is also significantly improved on addition of halloysite nanotubes under different loadings. Strong interfacial adhesion and interaction of halloysite nanotubes with epoxy matrix, influence the mechanical properties of developed composites. Microstructural analysis depicted uniform dispersion of HNT’s throughout the entire epoxy matrix up to 3 wt% and mechanical properties have been improved due to bridging and cross-linking mechanism of halloysite nanotube with epoxy matrix. Further considerable decrease in tensile, impact and flexural properties have been found for 4 wt% and 5 wt% HNT’s and this may be due to clustering of halloysite nanotube particles.