Polymer nanocomposites are increasingly used in applications that are subjected to harsh environments. Owing to polymer's susceptibility to photodegradation, nanofillers in a polymer nanocomposite may be released into the environments during the composite's life cycle. Such release potentially poses an environmental health and safety problem and may hinder commercialization of these advanced ma...

Using a previously developed coarse-grained model, we conducted large-scale (∼ 85 × 85 × 85 nm(3)) molecular dynamics simulations of uniaxial-strain deformation to study the tensile behavior of an epoxy molding compound, epoxy phenol novolacs (EPN) bisphenol A (BPA). Under the uniaxial-strain deformation, the material is found to exhibit cavity nucleation and growth, followed by stretching of t...

A kinetic model for thiol–epoxy crosslinking initiated by tertiary amines has been proposed. The kinetic model is based on mechanistic considerations and it features the effect of the initiator, hydroxyl content, and thiol–epoxy ratios. The results of the kinetic model have been compared with data from the curing of off-stoichiometric formulations of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) cros...

The objectives in this study were to deterrnine the through-thickness elastic constant of fiber-epoxy/metal composites with ultrasonic measurements and determine the elastic constants of the constituent layers. The specimens that we studied consist of alternaring layers of aluminum (2024 TI) and fiber-epoxy [1], all of which are 200 to 300 jlm thick. As Figure 1 indicates the outer two layers o...

The graphene nanosheets-based epoxy resin coating (0, 0.1, 0.4 and 0.7 wt %) was prepared by a situ-synthesis method. The effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone/reduced graphene oxide (PVP-rGO) on mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy resin coating was investigated using nanoindentation technique and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. A significant enhancement (ca. 213% and 73 °C) in the Yo...

The effects of amine functionalization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and CNTs weight percent (wt. %), on the first bending natural frequencies and damping properties of CNT/epoxy composites are investigated in this paper. CNTs and amine functionalized CNTs (AFCNTs), with two different weight percentages, are used to manufacture the beam shaped specimens. Epoxy, CNT/epoxy (0.25 and 0.5 wt. % of CNT...

Curing rates of an epoxy amine system were varied via different curing cycles, and glass-fiber epoxy composites were prepared using the same protocol, with the aim of investigating the correlation between microstructure and composite properties. It was found that the fast curing cycle resulted in a non-homogenous network, with a larger percentage of a softer phase. Homogenized composite propert...

Microporous structures are central to many fields of science and engineering, but many of these systems are complex with little or no symmetry and are difficult to fabricate. We applied two-photon polymerization (2PP) and femtosecond laser direct-writing techniques to fabricate broadarea large-format 3D microporous structures (450 μm × 450 μm × 40 μm) in the epoxy-based photoresist SU-8. The ap...

A Paper for the World Wise Conference 1999 Winnipeg, Manitoba © November 15, 1999 Introduction Joints are used in concrete pavements in order to control cracking due to thermal and environmental conditions. Dowels span joints to transfer load from one slab to an adjacent slab and to provide vertical and horizontal alignment. Currently, smooth epoxy coated steel dowels are placed across transver...

Carbon black (CB) and a 3D network epoxy polymer composite, representing dual functions for conductive corrosion protective layer (CCPL) and catalytic layer (CL) by the control of CB weight ratio against polymer is developed. Our strategy provides a proper approach which applies high catalytic ability and chemical stability of CB in corrosive triiodide/iodide (I3(-)/I(-)) redox electrolyte syst...