Abstract: Versatile high-performance epoxy nanocomposites were successfully prepared by co-incorporating organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) and TiO2 nanoparticles into the epoxy matrix. The X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron microscopy characterizations indicated that OMMT layers were highly exfoliated into some of nanoscale OMMT mono-platelets by the strong interaction among the OMMT, TiO2 nanoparticles and epoxy matrix, and the 2-dimensional OMMT mono-platelets obtained an interlacing arrangement with the 0-dimensional TiO2 nanoparticles in the matrix. Mechanical tests and thermal analyses showed that the resulting epoxy/OMMT/TiO2 nanocomposites achieved a considerable improvement in various properties over pure epoxy resin.

Key words: organo-montmorillonite, nano titanium dioxide, epoxy, composite