Preparation and Characterization of Epoxy/Acrylonitrile – butadiene – styrene Copolymer/Clay Ternary Nanocomposite: Impact Modified Epoxy

Epoxy resins are considered to be the most important class of thermosetting polymers due to their excellent strength, chemical resistance, and electrical properties. They have found remarkable applications as bonding agents and adhesives, protective coatings, electrical laminates, apparel finishes, flooring and paving, and high performance composites. However, they are very brittle, with poor resistance to crack propagation and low impact strength. [1]Several studies have been done concerning acrylonitrile – butadiene – styrene copolymer (ABS) toughened epoxy thermosetting system. Morphological studies show phase separation for ABS that dispersed uniformly in cycloaliphtic amine cured epoxy matrix. [2,3] Mechanical properties of blend slightly increases only at low ABS content (4-5%). [4,5]The objectives of this work are to prepare nanocomposite materials with an impact modified property and study the effects of ABS and montmorillonite contents on the morphological and mechanical properties of the ternary systems obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and impact and tensile tests