Basalt fabric/(3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane modified epoxy laminates reinforced with nano-silica, OMMT and GNP: mechanical and dynamic mechanical studies

In formulating high-performance polymer composites, bonding is highly crucial. Typically the issue of bonding arises when fibers and fillers that are primarily inorganic are reinforced to organic polymers. In order to address this kind of issue, normally a coupling agent is employed as a "molecular bridge" among the ingredients of the laminates. In the realm of polymer composite studies, the conventional method of fibers and fillers modification has yielded positive results. Unlike these studies, the present work is aimed at employing a matrix modification approach for achieving improved bonding. Given these perspectives, epoxy is modified using a silane-coupling agent (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and reinforced with basalt fabric consisting of nine layers. The laminates are formulated using the vacuum infusion technique and the impact of the modification process is evaluated through morphological, mechanical, and dynamic mechanical characterizations. The results indicate that the modification of epoxy has led to an increase in tensile properties, impact energy, and several attributes of dynamic mechanical properties of the laminate. The modified epoxy laminate is further enhanced by the incorporation of nano-fillers, viz. nano-silica, organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT), and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) at a concentration of 1 wt.%. The OMMT-loaded modified epoxy laminate has exhibited the most significant improvements among all across various properties. These findings demonstrate that the chemical enrichment of epoxy through APTES modification and the incorporation of nano-fillers enhance the performance of the laminates by improving their adhesion strength.