Investigating the Degradation of Epoxy Resin Nanocomposite Exposed to Different Environments

Epoxy nanocomposites have found their path through a wide range of applications in marine, aerospace, automotive and electronics packaging industries. However, epoxy nanocomposites have proved to be vulnerable when exposed to different corrosive environments and the role of nanocarbon in leading the extent of changes of their properties have been a subject of research in several studies. This study aims at investigating the influence environmental degradation has on the mechanical properties of nanocarbon reinforced epoxy nanocomposites. To achieve this goal, epoxy resin reinforced with nanocarbon in varying proportions were prepared and their mechanical properties compared. The samples were immersed in 0.5M H2SO4, 1M NaOH and seawater solutions for 30 days. After immersion, the mechanical properties of the samples were evaluated using tensile, flexural and impact tests respectively. The moisture absorption test was also done on the samples. While surface morphology of the fracture surfaces were examined with scanning electron microscopy, it was observed from the results that the solutions affect significantly the mechanical properties of the samples. However samples that were immersed in NaOH solution suffered the highest reduction in terms of flexural and tensile properties. The samples immersed in seawater presented the highest degradation in terms of the impact strength while the samples immersed in H2SO4 had the highest moisture uptake.