Study of environmental behavior and its effect on solid particle erosion behavior of hierarchical porous activated carbon‐epoxy composite

Porous carbon materials have versatile physical and chemical characteristics; however, these materials are not be fully exploited as reinforcements in polymer composites. The present investigation focuses on extraction of hierarchical porous carbon and its utilization in polymer composite in order to enhance the erosion wear resistance and hardness of polymer composite. The current research work also demonstrates the wear behavior of the hierarchical porous carbon epoxy composite when exposed to different environmental conditions. The attributes of hierarchical carbon have verified through different characterization techniques, further porous carbon with optimum properties has been included as reinforcement in different ratios viz. 1, 2 and 3 wt. % to make the epoxy composites. The composites were studied for their hardness, moisture absorption and erosion wear behavior at variable impingement angles (30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°) and impingement velocities (101, 119, and 148 m/s). Moisture uptake results suggests that the increase in filler percentage increased the moisture absorption, and the highest moisture absorption was reported in composite immersed in saline water environment. It was observed that addition of activated carbon particles has enhanced hardness and wear resistance of the composite. Composite with 2 wt.% particulate reinforcement was found to be the optimum percentage of reinforcement which was subjected to 82.4% less material loss that is, erosion rate at 45° impact angle compared to neat polymer. From the erosion wear results it was further noticed that moisture absorption has deteriorated the erosion wear resistance of composites resulting in high material loss. Characterization of hierarchical porous activated carbon