Abstract:

Epoxy?based composites were prepared through compression molding using bisphenol?A?type epoxy resin as a matrix and chopped glass fiber and nano glass powders as fillers. TG and SEM were used to investigate the effect of the loading of nano glass powders on the thermal stability of this type of resin matrix composites. Kissinger method and Flynn?Wall?Ozawa method were adopted to investigate their thermal decomposition kinetics. The results indicated that the maximum thermal decomposition temperature of the epoxy resin increased from 365 °C to 369 °C with the addition of chopped glass fiber， and it was further increased by 5~16 °C with the addition of nano glass powders. The composites presented a residual char yield ranging from 65.41 % to 69.15 %， which were increased by 69.88 %~71.51 % and 22.95 %~27.11 % in comparison with pure bisphenol A epoxy resin and chopped?glass?fiber?reinforced epoxy composites， respectively. Meanwhile， the composites achieved an improvement in thermal decomposition activation energy up to 153.14 kJ/mol due to the introduction of nano glass powders. Such a value is significantly higher than the thermal decomposition activation energy of 135.65 kJ/mol and 137.46 kJ/mol for pure bisphenol?A epoxy resin and chopped?glass?fiber?reinforced epoxy composites， respectively. These results indicated that the addition of nano glass powders could change the internal microstructure of the epoxy composites then improved their thermal stability.

Key words: bisphenol?A?type epoxy resin, chopped glass fiber, nano glass powder, composite, thermal stability