TY - CONF A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media T1 - Studies on interphase formation of cured epoxy resin near boehmite surface N2 - The application of inorganic nanoparticles as reinforcement agent for polymer composites is constantly growing. Improving the performance of the material with desirable properties requires understanding of the interaction between polymer chains and nanoparticles and the properties of the interphase as well. Boehmite, a mineral of aluminum with basic unit of AlO(OH), is a novel and promising nanofiller which leads to enhanced performance of polymer composites. It has been recently reported that boehmite nanoparticles have reinforcing effect on epoxy matrix in carbon-fiber composites. It was primarily assumed that these improvements are due to very high Young’s modulus of boehmite particles. However, in our latest study we presented new values for the Young’s modulus of boehmite much lower than those reported earlier. This brings up the importance of interphase properties, e.g. the crosslink density, which can have the dominant role in the overall material property. Nevertheless, due to resolution limitations of conventional nanoprobing approaches, characterization of the interphase between individual particles and matrix is a challenge. In this study, the main goal is to investigate the interphase of the epoxy/boehmite nanocomposites using AFM-based methods. We simplify the three-dimensional nanocomposite system to a two-dimensional horizontally layered sample with a large and easy to access interphase area. For this purpose, 1µm coatings of hydrothermally synthesized boehmite are prepared as the substrate on which the epoxy is later molded and cured. AFM surface potential and force maps were obtained on the cross-sectional cut of epoxy/ boehmite sample. The results show unexpectedly a large interphase area (approx. 1 µm) with different electrical and mechanical properties comparing to bulk epoxy. The average force-distance curves from this region showed more elastic behavior compared to bulk. The underlying mechanism of this influence is not fully understood yet. Thus, further investigation on the interphase region using the novel Nano-IR approach provides more information about the chemical characteristics. Numerical simulation will give complementary information to understand the effect of nanoparticles on the crosslinking density of the interphase. This can be different to bulk epoxy due to either different local temperature gradients or due to a surface selectivity of boehmite towards the monomer molecules. T2 - ICCS20–20th International Conference on Composite Structures CY - Paris, France DA - 04.09.2017 KW - AFM KW - AFM-IR KW - ImAFM KW - Boehmite KW - Epox KW - Nanocomposite KW - Interphase KW - Nanomechanics PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-50689 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Topolniak, Ievgeniia A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media T1 - Versatile role of boehmite particles in epoxy-based nanocomposites N2 - Thermosetting materials are gaining increasing attention in many structural composite applications. However, the incorporation of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) into polymer matrix is a promising approach to enhance their functional characteristics, and thus, to enable the development of thermosets advanced application. It has been shown that Boehmite Alumina (BA) used as nanofillers can improve different parameters of polymers. This NPs can be easily tailored enabling desirable interactions with a big range of polymers. However, the overall effect of nanofiller depends on many factors, therefore, making it hard to predict the resulted performance of nanocomposites. In the current contribution we would like to discuss the impact of Boehmite NPs on two different epoxy resin nanocomposite systems with the focus on the possible influence mechanisms of this nanofiller. As the first system, UV curable Cycloaliphatic-Epoxy Oligosiloxane (CEOS) resin/Boehmite nanocomposites were investigated by FTIR, TGA, DSC and T-SEM. It was observed that incorporation of BA leads to the reinforcement of glass transition (Tg) and overall thermal stability indicating the attractive interactions between BA and CEOS network. In addition, an increase in epoxy conversion of CEOS was concluded for nanocomposites assuming that particles are involved in UV polymerisation processes. The second epoxy/Boehmite nanocomposite is based on the bisphenol-A-diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) cured with methyl tetrahydrophtalic acid anhydride (MTHPA). Thermomechanical as well as nanomechanical properties of this material were investigated by DMTA and IR spectroscopy and the advanced Intermodulation AFM, respectively. In contrast to the first system, it was found that BA leads to a decrease of Tg and crosslink density of the polymer while the young’s modulus of the composite and local stiffness of polymer matrix increase significantly. As a result, the versatile role of Boehmite was detected depending on the investigated systems. Based on the obtained results, the parameters indicating property-efficient epoxy/Boehmite system are suggested. T2 - HYMA Conference CY - Sitges, Spain DA - 11.03.2019 KW - Epoxy KW - Boehmite KW - Curing KW - Nanocomposite PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47640 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fankhänel, J. A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media A1 - Daum, B. A1 - Kempe, A. A1 - Sturm, Heinz A1 - Rolfes, R. T1 - Mechanical properties of Boehmite evaluated by Atomic Force Microscopy experiments and Molecular Dynamic Finite Element simulations N2 - Boehmite nanoparticles show great potential in improving mechanical properties of fiber reinforced polymers. In order to predict the properties of nanocomposites, knowledge about the material parameters of the constituent phases, including the boehmite particles, is crucial. In this study, the mechanical behavior of boehmite is investigated using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) experiments and Molecular Dynamic Finite Element Method (MDFEM) simulations. Young’s modulus of the perfect crystalline boehmite nanoparticles is derived from numerical AFM simulations. Results of AFM experiments on boehmite nanoparticles deviate significantly. Possible causes are identified by experiments on complementary types of boehmite, that is, geological and hydrothermally synthesized samples, and further simulations of imperfect crystals and combined boehmite/epoxy models. Under certain circumstances, the mechanical behavior of boehmite was found to be dominated by inelastic effects that are discussed in detail in the present work.The studies are substantiated with accompanying X-ray diffraction and Raman experiments. KW - AFM KW - MDFEM KW - Nanocomposite KW - Epoxy KW - X-ray diffraction KW - Raman spectroscopy KW - Young’s modulus KW - Slippage of weakly linked layers PY - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-384230 UR - https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/2016/5017213/#B26 DO - https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/5017213 VL - 2016 IS - Article ID 5017213 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation AN - OPUS4-38423 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -