Preparation and characterization of the mesoporous SiO2–TiO2/epoxy resin hybrid materials

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, epoxy/tatania/silica ternary hybrid materials with covalent bonding interaction between polymer and inorganic phases have been prepared using titania/silica mesoporous particles, which were prepared by the sol–gel process from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and titanium tetra‐butyltitanate (TBT) as precursors. The obtained hybrid particles were characterized by Nitrogen physisorption, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), etc. From the experimental results, the glass transition temperature (Tg) increases and the modulus of the modified systems decreases by adding mesoporous SiO2–TiO2 particles to epoxy matrix, the impact strength and tensile strength of the hybrid materials increase by 53.5% and 14% when the SiO2–TiO2 content is up to 3 wt %. The morphological, structure of the impact fracture surface and the surface of the hybrid were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008