Viscoelastic behaviour of yttrium oxide and reduced graphene oxide embedded epoxy nanocomposite

Abstract

In this work, two different types of nanofillers yttrium oxide (Y2O3) or yttria and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are used to reinforce with epoxy polymer for the synthesis of epoxy nanocomposites by using the ultrasonication dual mixing approach. Raman spectroscopy has been done to analyze the microstructure of yttria and conformation of the formed RGO from Graphene oxide. The viscoelastic behavior of epoxy nanocomposites is evaluated with the help of the dynamic mechanical analyzer. Further Storage modulus is used to determine the cross-link density ‘νe’, coefficient of effectiveness ‘C factor’, and reinforcement efficiency factor ‘r factor’. The damping coefficient (Tanδ) helps in determining the glass transition temperature of the epoxy and its nanocomposites. The results demonstrate that at 1.6wt.% Y2O3& 0.8wt.% RGO reinforcement in pure epoxy matrix showed maximum enhancement in terms of storage modulus, loss modulus, and glass transition temperature. The semi-circular shape that resulted from the study of the Cole-Cole plot of all the nanocomposites demonstrated the homogenous dispersion of nanoparticles and efficient bonding between epoxy and nanoparticles. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) has been used to identify the interfacial interaction between nanoparticle and epoxy matrix through tensile fracture surfaces.