Polyester/vinylester polymer hybrid blended nanocomposites: Effect of nano on mechanical and thermal properties

The objective of this research was to gain the better understanding of hardness and impact strength of polymer blended hybrid nanocomposites in which the polyester/vinylester were mixed together to bring out the modified blended solution and it was loaded with nanoclay and carbon fiber. Hardness and impact strength were increased up to 5 wt.% clay loading, and decreases further increasing of clay content. Nanocomposites were prepared by using hand layup process and 9 wt.% of carbon fiber commonly used in all nanocomposites. Mechanical stirrer and ultra sonicator (Probe type) were used to mix clay uniformly into the modified solution. It was observed from the SEM analysis that, due to the addition of clay particles composite transformed from brittle to ductile nature and it is cumulative at 5 wt.% clay and after that void formed due to high clay content made it very difficult to mix the clay uniformly as a result of that voids are formed in the composite and these voids can be seen in the 6 wt.% clay. For 4 wt.% clay loading thermal stability was significantly improved up to 332 °C, and the glass transition temperature was improved to 3 °C when compared with 2 and 3 wt.% clay loaded samples. The proposed reaction curing mechanism of the isothalic based polyester and epoxidized novolac vinyl ester resin was found to be well suitable for blend systems confirmed by FT IR analysis.