Strengthening and toughening epoxy polymer at cryogenic temperature using cupric oxide nanorods

At cryogenic temperatures thermoset polymers suffer from low fracture toughness. Herein, we present a strengthening and toughening technique for applications using cupric oxide (CuO) nanorods. These nanorods are synthesized via hydrothermal reaction to give an average length of 1.64 ? m diameter 270 nm. They exhibit coefficient thermal expansion (CTE) at temperatures, due the magnetostriction effect. Epoxy nanocomposites containing up 8 wt% CuO were investigated. Both tensile strength energy found increase with content 4 wt%, showing improvements 18% 133% respectively room temperature, 21% 261% ?196 °C. Current theoretical models shown account experimentally measured values both toughness but significantly underestimate observed However, modifications these include residual stresses generated by CTE mismatch proposed that lead good agreement values. The strengthen toughen epoxy modified theories provide potential designing optimising multi-scale fibre composites such as fuel tanks. • An polymer is strengthened toughened Thermal stress promotes effects on temperatures. Existing analytical developed