Study of some Mechanical Properties and Thermal Conductivity of Epoxy/TiO2-ZnO Hybrid Nano Composites

Abstract

It had been studied the effect of reinforcement by Nano Titanium Dioxide (nano-TiO2) powder, Nano Zinc Oxide (nano-ZnO) powder [both of them with grain size of (10-30)nm], and the hybrid (TiO2+ZnO) from the powder above (with 2wt.% concentration), on the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity for polymeric composites that it basis by epoxy resin which prepared by Hand Lay-up molding method. For prepared samples, it had been made compression strength, surface hardness and thermal conductivity tests in natural conditions (without immersion), and after the immersion in solution of diluted hydrochloric acid (HCl) with two normality (0.5N and 1N). Tests results showed that previous addition ceramic powders improved the mechanical properties for composite materials. The hybrid composite had higher compression strength, higher Elasticity strength and higher hardness, followed by (Ep+ZnO) composite. Also, the hybrid composite had less thermal conductivity coefficient (K).On the other hand, the composites immersion in diluted HCl solution led to affect their previous mechanical properties by negativity manner. The hybrid composite was the least affecting, and the acid expansion in composites led to oscillate the values of thermal conductivity coefficient. At the end of immersion time, the coefficient (K) dropped for hybrid composite more than two composites (Ep+TiO2) and (Ep+ZnO).