Reinforcement of Stearic Acid Treated Egg Shell Particles in Epoxy Thermosets: Structural, Thermal, and Mechanical Characterization

Ahmer Hussain Shah; Yuqi Zhang; Xiaodong Xu; Abdul Qadeer Dayo; Xiao Li; Shuo Wang; Wenbin Liu

doi:10.3390/ma11101872

Reinforcement of Stearic Acid Treated Egg Shell Particles in Epoxy Thermosets: Structural, Thermal, and Mechanical Characterization

Materials (Basel). 2018 Oct 1;11(10):1872. doi: 10.3390/ma11101872.

Authors

Ahmer Hussain Shah^{1

2}, Yuqi Zhang³, Xiaodong Xu⁴, Abdul Qadeer Dayo^{5

6}, Xiao Li⁷, Shuo Wang⁸, Wenbin Liu⁹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. ahmer.shah@buitms.edu.pk.
² Department of Textile Engineering, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta 87300, Pakistan. ahmer.shah@buitms.edu.pk.
³ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. zhangyuqi7@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. xuxiaodong@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. abdul.qadeer@buitms.edu.pk.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta 87300, Pakistan. abdul.qadeer@buitms.edu.pk.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. shawn@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. wangshuo123@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Superlight Material and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. liuwenbin@hrbeu.edu.cn.

Abstract

This work reports the modification of egg shell (ES) particles by using stearic acid (SA) and their reinforcement in the epoxy matrix. The ES treatment via SA was optimized, the optimum conditions for concentration, temperature, and time were found to be 2.5%, 85 °C, and 50 min, respectively. The untreated ES (UES) and treated ES (TES) particles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), particle size distribution, and contact angle. FTIR confirmed the chemical modification of SA on ES surface and DSC reflects an endothermic peak at 240 °C. XRD reveal a decrease in crystal size and crystallinity, while contact angle increases to 169° from 42°. The SEM observations clearly reflect a distinct decrease and separation of small domains of ES particles thus improving an increased surface area. Afterwards, the UES and TES particles were reinforced in epoxy at 15 and 20 weight (wt.) % loading. The tensile tests confirmed a 22% increase in elongation as compared to pure epoxy due to the hydrogen bonding between TES particles and matrix. The lowest brittleness was recorded for TES/epoxy composites on 20 wt % loading. The TGA confirmed the improved thermal stabilities at 20 wt % loading of TES particles in matrix, the improvements in T_5%, T_10%, and T_20% values were recorded as 33, 26, and 21 °C higher than the corresponding values for neat matrix. The TES/epoxy composites on 20 wt % showed 41% increase in storage modulus as compared to the pristine epoxy, and cross-link density reaches to 2.71 × 10^-3 from 1.29 × 10^-3 mol/cm³ for neat matrix. The decline in tan δ height and improvement in T_g were also observed. The best adhesion effectiveness was recorded for TES/epoxy composites. This simple and economical modification technique can enhance the application of ES particles in various polymeric coating and composites applications.

Keywords: adhesion effectiveness; dynamic mechanical analysis; egg shell; epoxy composites; modification; particle characterization; stearic acid.

Abstract

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