An Investigation of the Mechanical Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Polyepoxy Isocyanurates and Monodispersed Carbon Nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanocomposites based on polyepoxy isocyanurate crosslinked systems of different chemical composition were produced in order to investigate the specific effect of technical nanocarbon on each individual polymer network. Monodispersed carbon particles were produced by methane chlorination conducted in a continuous reactor in a non-equilibrium regime with a chlorine deficit. The dependences of the forced elasticity limit, stress relaxation, etc., on the degree of filling were analysed. The possibility of interphase interaction between a specific polyepoxy isocyanurate network and ‘nanofiller’ was investigated. It was shown that a fairly low concentration (1 wt%) of monodispersed carbon particles of 20–25 nm size leads to a 25–30% increase in the elastic modulus and forced elasticity limit; similarly, the relaxation characteristics are also increased. It was established that improvement in a number of such properties is connected with the greater influence of interphase interactions between the polymer and filler on account of the large surface layer area.