Mechanical Characteristics of Nano-Filler and Cellulose Fibre-Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites

Alamri, Hatem; Low, It-Meng

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Authors

Alamri, Hatem

Low, It-Meng

Date

2010

Type

Conference Paper

Metadata

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Citation

Alamri, H. and Low, I.M. 2010. Mechanical Characteristics of Nano-Filler and Cellulose Fibre-Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites, 7th Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials (ACCM-7), Nov 15 2010. Taipei, Taiwan.

Source Title

Proceedings of the Seventh Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials

Source Conference

The Seventh Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials

School

Department of Imaging and Applied Physics

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6292

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

In this paper, epoxy nanocomposites reinforced with recycled cellulose fibres (RCF) and nano-clay platelets (30B) have been fabricated and investigated. The influences of RCF/nano-clay dispersion on the mechanical and fracture properties of these composites have been characterized in terms of flexural strength, fracture toughness, impact-fracture and impact strength. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the microstructures of these materials. It was found that the presence of RCF resulted in significant increase in fracture toughness, impact strength, impact toughness and flexural modulus but moderate increase in flexural strength. However, the influence of nanoclay on flexural strengths was found to be modest or insignificant which could be due to the poor dispersion of nano-fillers and the existence of voids within the samples. Addition of RCF was found to increase the porosities of all composites.