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Abstract
Thermogravimetry is one of the most well-known thermal analysis techniques. It is used to determine thermal properties or thermal degradation characteristics of solid polymers under controlled heating conditions. The aim of this work is to study the effect of nanosilica on thermal degradation behaviour and maximum degradation temperature of the Epikote 828 epoxy system using the thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) technique. In addition, TGA was also used to measure the weight fraction of constituents in pure polymer and nanocomposite systems. The nanocomposite samples, which contain 5, 13 and 25 wt-% nanosilica, were prepared using DGEBA-type epoxy, anhydride-type hardener and 20 nm silica nanospheres. TGA profiles were plotted at three different heating conditions. The results showed that the maximum degradation temperature of the nanocomposites samples was higher than that of the neat system. This means that the inclusion of nanosilica enhance thermal stability of the epoxy polymer.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Research Management Institute (RMI) Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for financial support. The research work was conducted at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UiTM, Malaysia under support of the Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS) no: 600-RMI/RAGS 5/3 (58/2012) and the Research Intensive Faculty Fund (RIF) no: 600-RMI/DANA 5/3/RIF (318/2012).