The Effect of Nanoparticles Percentage on Mechanical Behavior of Silica-Epoxy Nanocomposites

Table 1

Suggested expressions to estimate mechanical behavior of silica-epoxy nanocomposites at different fractions of nanoparticles.

Nanocomposite	Suggested equation	Ranges of applications
		Nanoparticle dimension	wt% or vol%	Remark
Silica-epoxy	𝐸=3.639×10^−5𝑊𝐴wt^0.04; [in GPa]	8–50 nm	1–40 (wt%)	Sol-gel processing
Rubbery silica epoxy mesocomposite	𝑔𝐸=SSA288×10^0.053wt; [in GPa]	10–100 nm	2–10 (wt%)	Nanoparticle’s pore size: 4–21 nm
Silica-epoxy	𝑊𝜎=𝐴wt^−0.069; [in kPa]	8–50 nm	1–40 (wt%)	Sol-gel processing
Rubbery silica epoxy mesocomposite	𝑔𝜎=SSA55.8×10^0.04wt; [in GPa]	10–100 nm	2–10 (wt%)	Nanoparticle’s pore size: 4–21 nm
Epoxy-silica-rubber	𝜎cy=56.8×10^−0.004vol; [in MPa]	20 nm, 80 nm	0–6.4 (vol%)	CTBN processing
Epoxy-silica-rubber	𝐸𝑐=1.53×10^0.001vol; [in GPa]	20 nm, 80 nm	0–6.4 (vol%)	CTBN processing

Where E is Young’s modulus, σ is tensile stress, SSA is specific surface area in m²/kg, g is gravitational acceleration in m/s², A is the average surface area of nanoparticle in m², W is average weight of nanoparticles in N, wt% and vol% are weight and volume fractions [0≤wt≤100,0≤vol≤100], 𝜎_cy is the compressive yield stress, and 𝐸_𝑐 is the compressive modulus.