Study on curing process, surface strength and thermal diffusivity of epoxy nanocomposites

This paper aims at improving the surface strength properties and thermal conductivity of epoxy resin by adding two kinds of nano-particles, inorganic alumina nano-particles and organic nitrile rubber nano-powders. The curing process of epoxy based nanocomposites was investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The surface strength properties and thermal diffusivity were evaluated by dynamic ultra-micro hardness tester and laser flash method, respectively. The results indicated that the curing reaction of nanocomposites was influenced by the addition of nano-particles. Alumina nano-particles exerts stronger influence on the curing reaction than nitrile rubber nano-powders by showing higher curing temperature. Compared with pure epoxy resin, the nanocomposites with mixed nano alumina and nitrile rubber have lower curing temperature. When using these two kinds of nano-particles together, the surface hardness and the elastic modulus were improved, meanwhile, the creep-resistant and deformation-resistant properties were enhanced. As a result, the surface strength property of epoxy composites was improved with addition of nano-powders. Meanwhile, the thermal diffusivity of nanocomposites was enhanced with the addition of alumina. The nanocomposites with rubber nano-powders and alumina nano-particles have the similar thermal diffusivity with those with 20 wt% alumina nano-particles.