Fibre reinforced composite materials consists of fibres of significant stiffness and strength embedded in a matrix with distinct boundaries between them. These materials have better mechanical properties compared to normal metals. These are better substitutes to metals with additional strength at reduced weight for a given system. Our paper investigates the variation of particle size with increase in milling time of silica particle constituents.
Hybrid nanocomposites are prepared by the inclusion of silica nanoparticles into the epoxy polymer by ultra-sonication method and glass fiber with 50% weight fraction reinforcing it. The silica nanoparticles used in the preparation of composites were treated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. The samples with 1%, 2% and 3% weight fraction of silica nanoparticles with fiber glass reinforced composites are prepared by hand layup method. These samples are characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) machine to observe the crystallinity of the composite and also to identify the silica phase and its structural properties such as crystallite size, crystal structure, crystal planes, dspacing of crystal plane. Polymer matrix nanocomposites have attracted growing attention due to the potential for significantly improving the properties of the polymer by adding a very small amount of nanoparticles.
Ball milling, Polymer nanocomposites, nanosilica, crystallinity
