Effects of EPON on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Epoxy Resins

Low cost composite materials are widely used in civil and structural engineering applications. This project uses EPON to plasticize a commonly used resin, epoxy resin to lower the cost of the composite and to find out the mechanical and thermal properties of the plasticized epoxy resin to see if it is suitable for the said applications. Three point bending tests were carried out to evaluate the flexural properties of the plasticized resins. Differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis are used to evaluate the thermal properties of the plasticized epoxy resin. The study with epoxy and EPON showed that the mechanical properties of the epoxy composite were lowered but its ability to dissipate energy increased because of its improved thermal properties. As EPON is much cheaper that epoxy resin, the composite produced is therefore cheaper and provided the service requirements were not so demanding, it can be used in the said applications. Introduction The emergence use of fibre composite materials and technologies in civil and structural engineering has created opportunities in the development of ‘smarter’ new polymers and polymer additives. The composite research centre of the University of Southern Queensland developed projects for creating new materials suitable for civil and structural engineering applications. One of the difficulties faced by the centre in using composites is the brittleness of thermosetting resins, even though the mechanical properties of these resin-based composites are good. This means that most civil engineering structures manufactured from thermosetting resin based composites are strainrather than strength-limited. Consequently, a major focus of polymer research work was conducted at the centre to improve the toughness of thermosetting resins. There are many well-established techniques used to toughen these resins. These approaches are always cost-prohibitive for civil engineering composites. This study uses EPON to plasticize and reduce the brittleness as well as lowering the cost of the resins. Different percentage by weight of EPON was added to epoxy resin in steps of five percent.