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Mechanical and thermal properties of unsaturated polyester-silica nanocomposites

R.Baskaran, M.Sarojadevi, C.T.Vijayakumar

Nano silica was synthesized by a sol-gel technique and the size of the particles was confirmed to be of 50-60nm using transmission electron microscopy (TEM).Nanocomposites of unsaturated polyester with silica were prepared by using casting technique. Unsaturated polyesters containing different proportions of nano silica (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 wt%) was prepared and cured using methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) and cobalt naphthenate as initiator and accelerator respectively. The mechanical properties (tensile strength and modulus, flexural strength, hardness and impact strength) and thermal properties were analyzed by using dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and thermo gravimetric analyzer (TGA). Mechanical and thermal properties of nanocomposites were found to be improve with the addition of silica, but decline if the nano silica was the excess of 5 wt%.