Synergy between Phenoxy and CSR Tougheners on the Fracture Toughness of Highly Cross-Linked Epoxy-Based Composites
(2021) Polymers — Vol. 13, n° 15, p. 2477 (2021)
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- Authors
Bailly, Christian 
- Abstract
- A remarkable synergistic increase in fracture toughness by 130% is demonstrated for a CFRP high performance epoxy composite when adding an equal weight combination of phenoxy thermoplastic and core-shell rubber (CSR) toughening agents, as compared to a single toughener at a comparable total concentration of around 10 wt%. The dual-toughened matrix exhibits an unusual morphological arrangement of the two toughener agents. The interlaminar shear strength of the composites is also synergistically improved by about 75% as compared to the reference while the compression modulus reduction and viscosity increase are significantly smaller than for the single phenoxy toughened system. A partial filtering of the CSR particles by the dense CF fabric during pre-pregging leads to a less than optimum CSR dispersion in the composites, showing that the synergy can be further optimized, possibly to the same level as the unreinforced systems.
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Citations
Van Velthem, P., Gabriel, S., Pardoen, T., Bailly, C., & Ballout, W. (2021). Synergy between Phenoxy and CSR Tougheners on the Fracture Toughness of Highly Cross-Linked Epoxy-Based Composites. Polymers, 13(15), 2477. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13152477 (Original work published 2021)