Effects of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Mechanical Strength of Epoxy Hybrid Composite Materials Reinforced with Unidirectional Carbon and Glass Fibers

The present work describes the development of hybrid epoxy composite reinforced with unidirectional carbon, glass fibers and nano-TiO 2 powder in order to study some of its mechanical properties. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) were dispersed in epoxy with different weight fractions (1, 3, and 5 wt. %) using sonication. Composite materials under study have been prepared by reinforcing the resulted nanocomposite by three different layers of unidirectional carbon fibers and glass bidirectional fibers using hand lay-up technique. Tensile and hardness tests as well as the surface roughness test have been performed during the experimental work. It has been observed that the tensile strengths of the fiber-reinforced polymer composites increase with fiber content, and TiO 2 nanoparticles up to a maximum value of 3 wt % after which it decreases. The value, modulus of elasticity, tension resistance, and hardness of the fiber-reinforced polymer composites increase with increasing fiber loading. The results obtained in this work show that the addition of TiO 2 nanoparticles at up to 3%wt to the epoxy composite reinforced with unidirectional carbon and glass fibers enhances the mechanical strength of such material.