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Polymer/Halloysite Nanotubes Composites: Mechanical Robustness and Optical Transmittance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2016

Kenan Song*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, Massachusetts 02139, United States
Michael F. Rubner
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, Massachusetts 02139, United States
Robert E. Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Massachusetts 02139, United States
Khalid A. Askar
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Masdar Institute, United Arab Emirates
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Abstract

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have attracted attention for their potential use in a variety of applications owing to their mechanical robustness, thermal stability, natural abundance and low cost. The inclusion of HNTs into epoxy matrix at low concentrations was found to be effective in stiffening and hardening. At 1 vol% loading, composites showed improvements up to 50% in modulus and 100% in hardness compared to pure epoxy, based on nanoindentation measurements. In addition, tribology studies using TriboIndenter and AFM showed an increase of wear resistance; depending on their orientation in the composite, HNTs can decrease the scratch volume by 50% at fixed loading levels. Adding HNTs into epoxy had almost no effect on the transmittance over the range of wavelength from 400 to 700 nm. Transmittance values of 91% were observed for HNT concentrations as high as 10 vol%.

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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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