Highly Toughened Nanostructured Self-Assembled Epoxy-Based Material-Correlation Study between Nanostructured Morphology and Fracture Toughness-Impact Characteristics

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 15; no. 7; p. 1689
• Main Authors: Remya, Vasudevan Pillay, Parani, Sundararajan, Sakho, El Hadji Mamour, Rajendran, Jose Varghese, Maluleke, Rodney, Lebepe, Thabang Calvin, Masha, Sam, Hameed, Nishar, Thomas, Sabu, Oluwafemi, Oluwatobi Samuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28.03.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Bisphenol A; Block copolymers; Coatings industry; Copolymers; Elastomers; Electron microscopy; Epoxy resins; Field emission microscopy; fracture mechanism; Fracture toughness; highly toughened; Impact resistance; Impact strength; Morphology; Nanostructure; nanostructured; Nanostructured materials; Polymer blends; Polystyrene resins; Scanning electron microscopy; self-assembled; Self-assembly; Solvents; Stress intensity factors; Styrenes; Viscoelasticity; India; impact strength; highly toughened; fracture mechanism; nanostructured; self-assembled
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym15071689

We present an efficient and effective method for preparing a novel self-assembled nanostructured material with high toughness and impact strength from a blend of di-glycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and epoxidized poly(styrene-block-butadiene-block-styrene) (eSBS ) tri-block copolymer. The field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope results show the nanostructured morphological characteristics of the blends. This study achieved the highest fracture toughness, with a fracture toughness in the form of critical stress intensity factors ( ) value of 2.54 MPa m , in epoxy/block copolymer blends compared to previous works in the field. The impact strength also increased by 116% compared to neat epoxy. This is a major advancement in epoxy toughening due to the use of a single secondary phase. The resulting highly tough and impact-resistant material is a promising candidate for coating applications in industries such as flooring, building, aerospace, and automobiles.