Preparation and Characterization of Tensile Behavior of TiO2/Vinyl-Ester Nanocomposites

So far، most of the researches have examined the production process and its effect on the properties of epoxy nanocomposites and there is little informations on the nanocomposite with vinyl ester polymeric matrix. However، vinyl ester is one of the highly used resins in composite industry. In recent years، adding reinforcements with small dimensions (especially in nanoscale) has been proposed as a solution to improving the properties. In nanocomposites، due to diffusion of polymer chains into the nanoparticles and establishment of an appropriate bond with them، improvment of the properties can be expected. The aim of this research was to manufacture and investigate of tensile behavior of vinyl ester/titanium dioxide nanocomposites. Nanocomposite samples were produced by melt mixing technique and with content of 1، 2. 5 and 5 weight percent of TiO2 nanoparticles. In addition، BYK-C8000 was added to the mixture as polymeric coupling agent. At first، the influence of production parameters on the properties of vinyl ester/1%wt. TiO2 nanocomposite was evaluated and then with selecting the optimum conditions and fixing the manufacture parameters، the effect of nanoparticles content on the properties of the samples was studied. Tensile behavior of nanocomposite was evaluated by uniaxial tensile test. Results indicate that by increasing in TiO2 content in the polymer matrix، the Young''s modulus steadily increases; while the strain-to-break of nanocomposites is reduced compared to the pure specimen.