Development and Mechanical Characterization of HGMS-EHS-Reinforced Hollow Glass Bead Composites

Tao Jiang; Yuan Gao; Ying Wang; Zhongxian Zhao; Jinhong Yu; Ke Yang; Yuantao Zhao; Wenge Li; Xinfeng Wu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c00015

Development and Mechanical Characterization of HGMS-EHS-Reinforced Hollow Glass Bead Composites

ACS Omega. 2020 Mar 20;5(12):6725-6737. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00015. eCollection 2020 Mar 31.

Authors

Tao Jiang¹, Yuan Gao², Ying Wang¹, Zhongxian Zhao¹, Jinhong Yu³, Ke Yang⁴, Yuantao Zhao¹, Wenge Li¹, Xinfeng Wu²

Affiliations

¹ Merchant Marine College, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China.
² College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.

Abstract

Hollow glass microsphere-reinforced epoxy hollow spheres (HGMS-EHSs) were prepared by a "rolling ball method" using expanded polystyrene beads, HGMSs, and epoxy resin (EP). The three-phase epoxy syntactic foam (epoxy/HGMS-EHS-HGMS composite) was fabricated by combining HGMS-EHS as a lightweight filler with EP and HGMS by a "molding method". The HGMS-EHS and epoxy curing agent systems were well mixed by scanning electron microscopy. Experiments show that higher HGMS-EHS stack volume fraction, lower HGMS-EHS layer number, higher HGMS-EHS diameter, lower HGMS-EHS density, higher HGMS volume fraction, and lower HGMS density result in a decrease in the density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. However, the above factors have the opposite effect on the compressive strength of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. Therefore, in order to obtain the "high-strength and low-density" three-phase epoxy syntactic foam, the influence of various factors should be considered comprehensively to achieve the best balance of compressive strength and density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. This can provide some advice for the preparation of buoyancy materials for deep sea operations.