Abstract
Silica-epoxy nanocomposites are very common among nanocomposites, which makes them very important. Several researchers have studied the effect of nanoparticle’s size, shape, and loading on mechanical behavior of silica-epoxy nanocomposites. This paper reviews the most important research done on the effect of nanoparticle loading on mechanical properties of silica-epoxy nanocomposites. While the main focus is the tensile behavior of nanocomposite, the compressive behavior and flexural behavior were also reviewed. Finally, some of the published experimental data were combined in the graphs, using dimensionless parameters. Later, the best fitted curves were used to derive some empirical formulas for mechanical properties of silica-epoxy nanocomposites as functions of weight or volume fraction of nanoparticles.
Highlights
Nanotechnology, technologies at nanoscale, is a new science that involves enhancing and engineering the material properties and technologies at the nanoscale
1 − volume fraction (Vf) eBfVf, 1 − 2.5Vf where Gc is fracture toughness of composite, Gm is fracture toughness of polymer matrix without reinforcement, E/Eo is related to resistance of matrix against plastic deformation, and Bf is proportionality constant that depends on size of the interphase and strength of interaction between filler and matrix
Jurkowski and Olkhov [64] reported that tensile stress and Young’s modulus of poly-ε-caprolactam/montmorillonite polymer nanocomposite improved about 41% and 73% compared to the pure polymer after adding 4.2% weight fraction of nanoparticle
Summary
Nanotechnology, technologies at nanoscale, is a new science that involves enhancing and engineering the material properties and technologies at the nanoscale. There are platelike nanofillers, which are layered materials, with a thickness of about 1 nm and an aspect ratio of at least 25 in two Journal of Nanoscience dimensions [8]. Increase in particle loading due to increase in weight fraction or volume fraction leads to uniform and continuous interface that may create a strong polymer network improving the mechanical properties [18]. Extensive research has been conducted on several polymer nanocomposites in order to understand the effect of weight fraction and volume fraction (vol.%) on mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposite [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. The previous research on the effect of nanoparticle size and weight fraction on mechanical properties of epoxy-silica nanocomposites is reviewed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
