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Updated: Aug 2, 2025

Manufacturing of Three-dimensionally Microstructured Nanocomposites through Microfluidic Infiltration
Published on: March 12, 2014
Highly Toughened Nanostructured Self-Assembled Epoxy-Based Material-Correlation Study between Nanostructured
Vasudevan Pillay Remya1,2, Sundararajan Parani1,2, El Hadji Mamour Sakho1,2
1Department of Chemical Sciences, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa.
Abstract:
We present an efficient and effective method for preparing a novel self-assembled nanostructured material with high toughness and impact strength from a blend of di-glycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and epoxidized poly(styrene-block-butadiene-block-styrene) (eSBS55) tri-block copolymer. The field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope results show the nanostructured morphological characteristics of the blends. This study achieved the highest fracture toughness, with a fracture toughness in the form of critical stress intensity factors (K) value of 2.54 MPa m1/2, in epoxy/block copolymer blends compared to previous works in the field. The impact strength also increased by 116% compared to neat epoxy. This is a major advancement in epoxy toughening due to the use of a single secondary phase. The resulting highly tough and impact-resistant material is a promising candidate for coating applications in industries such as flooring, building, aerospace, and automobiles.
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