Investigation of thermo-mechanical properties of surface treated SiO2/epoxy nanocomposite

The present work investigates the effect of surface-treated SiO2 nanoparticles on the thermo-mechanical property of epoxy-composites. The surface interactions between the SiO2 nanoparticles and epoxy matrix were improved by surface treatment of SiO2 nanoparticle with different functionalization agents. Four functionalization agents namely 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxy silane (GPTMS), 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane (APTES), 3-(2-aminoethyl amino)-propyl trimethoxy silane (AEAPTMS), and 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (TMPM) were employed for the surface-treatment of SiO2 nanoparticles. No significant change in particle size of SiO2 was observed after surface-treatment, however significant improvement in mechanical properties was observed. It was observed that the percent-age elongation and fracture toughness improved significantly with surface modification of the nanoparticles. Fracture toughness (K-1C) and fracture energy (G(1C)) were calculated to be 5.62 MPa.m(1/2) and 65.81 KJ/m(2), respectively, for pristine silica-epoxy nanocomposite, whereas these values increase to 9.3 MPa.m 112 and 124.27 kJ/m(2) with the dispersion of GPTE treated 1 wt% SiO2 nanoparticles. The value of storage modulus was increased by 159.64% for GPMT modified SiO2 nanoparticles. Thus, surface-treated SiO2-epoxy nanocomposites exhibited improved thermo-mechanical properties. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.