Influence of nano graphene on water absorption in polyester/vinylester blend gel coats
Subject Areas : نانومواد و پلیمرهای هوشمند
Zeinab
Rajabtabar
1
(Department of polymer processing, Iran polymer and petrochemical institute (IPPI), Tehran, Iran)
Morteza
Ehsani
2
(Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Tehran, Iran)
Azam
Ghadami
3
(Department of Chemical and Polymer Engineering, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.)
Yasser
Amani
4
(Department of polymer processing, Iran polymer and petrochemical institute (IPPI), Tehran, Iran)
Keywords: Composite materials, Resin, water absorption, Nano Grapheme, Gelcoat, Epoxy vinyl ester, Unsaturated polyester, Mixture rule,
Abstract :
Water absorption characteristics of composite materials and gel coats are crucial for their applications in marine industry. The physical and mechanical properties of composite parts are influenced by moisture. Water absorption of five gel coat compositions based on epoxy vinylester resin and neopentylglycol unsaturated polyester resin and their blends was studied in this work. The influence of nanographene addition on the water absorption of these gel coats was also investigated. The results showed that epoxyvinylester resin had the lowest and neophentylglycol unsaturated polyester resin had the highest water absorption levels, and their blends, as expected, showed the same behavior. TEM, SEM and XRD were used to analyze and characterize the dispersion and distribution of nanographene particles in the polymer matrices. The results showed both dispersed and non-dispersed flakes in the polymer matrices. It was also shown that the addition of nanographene resulted in gel coats with lower water absorption levels.