Effect of surface treatment on the impact behaviour of fly‐ash filled polymer composites

Abstract

The impact behaviour of epoxy specimens containing 10% by volume of fly‐ash particles with their surface treated for improving or decreasing adhesion is studied. The resulting behavioural patterns are listed and compared to those of composites containing untreated fly‐ash particles and unreinforced (ie neat) epoxy. It was noticed that samples involving adhesion‐increasing (ie acetone and silane) treatments show greater absorption of energy and maximum load compared to untreated samples and those subjected to adhesion‐reducing treatments. Ductility index, however, showed a reversed trend with adhesion‐reducing treatment yielding the highest value. In contrast, the energy absorbed was highest for neat resin and lowest for oil surface bearing ash particulate composites. Scanning electron microscope examination of the failed samples was carried out to obtain information on the fracture features with the aim of correlating microstructure to impact response. Thus, the higher ductility indices cases are shown to be distinct and different from composites containing other surface treatments for fillers. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry

Effective thermal conductivity and coefficient of linear thermal expansion of high-density polyethylene — fly ash composites

“…It is known that properties of particulate filled polymer composites are sensitive to the size, shape and distribution of filler particles in the polymeric matrix and also on their adhesion at the interface surface. Investigations on fly ash as filler in polymer matrix mostly concentrated on their mechanical [19,20], morphological and dielectric properties [15,[21][22]. Incorporation of fly ash in PET enhances its compression properties, which makes fly ash thermoplastics composites a viable choice for structural applications [23].…”

X‐Ray Microtomographic Characterization and Quantification of the Strain Rate Dependent Failure Mechanism in Cenosphere Epoxy Syntactic Foams

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The characteristics of cenosphere fillers such as the volume fraction and the size have the impact on the low rate behavior of the foam. [4,[8][9][10][11] The mechanical behavior is also significantly affected by the applied strain rate. Recently, more research efforts have been made to explore the high strain rate response of the foam.…”

“…Recently, more research efforts have been made to explore the high strain rate response of the foam. [10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Dynamic properties of syntactic foams are affected by the geometry and volume fraction of hollow microspheres. [13][14][15][16] The treatment of hollow microspheres can improve their interfacial adhesion to the epoxy matrix and thus the impact properties of the bulk foam, especially the strength.…”

“…[13][14][15][16] The treatment of hollow microspheres can improve their interfacial adhesion to the epoxy matrix and thus the impact properties of the bulk foam, especially the strength. [10] Pellegrino et al reported the glass microballoon polyurethane syntactic foam possesses higher strain rate sensitivity in tension compared to compression. [17] However, very little research has focused on the microscopic failure mechanism of syntactic foams subjected to dynamic loads.…”

Effects of silica based fillers, surface treatment and curing method on mechanical properties of silica/unsaturated polyester composites

“…11 The majority of the fly ash applications have been for construction and building materials while a few works have used fly ash as alternative fillers in polymers. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Since hydrophobic polymers and hydrophilic fly ash particles are incompatible and yielded poor interfacial bonding and inferior mechanical properties, chemical coupling agents are usually applied to promote adhesions between the polymer matrices and fly ash through formations of siloxane bonding. 12-17 Sen and Nugay 10 studied the mechanical properties of fly ash filled unsaturated polyester composites under uncured and thermally-cured states through the effect of fly ash loading and surface treatment.…”