Simultaneous improvement impact strength and thermal stability of epoxy resin by using bio-silica and a thermoplastic

In this work, the bio-silica and a novel thermoplastic were applied to improve the impact strength and thermal stability of epoxy resin. The ternary nanocomposites based on epoxy resin, bio-silica, and vinyl copolymer thermoplastic were fabricated at room temperature using a steel mold. The bio-silica was produced from rice husk biomass by calcination processing. The vinyl copolymer thermoplastic was synthesized from acrylic acid and hydroxyethyl acrylate via a radical polymerization, and assigned as poly(AA-co-HEA). The reinforcements have shown their vital role in improving impact strength, tensile strength, and glass transition temperature. Especially, by co-use of 1 wt% of silica and 5 wt% of poly(AA-co-HEA), the nanocomposite exhibited its highest tensile strength and resin impact strength. The thermal aging of nanocomposite was also investigated in detail.