The effect of a rapid heating rate, mechanical vibration and surfactant chemistry on the structure-property relationships of epoxy/clay nanocomposites Nuihiji, Betime, Attart, Darren, Thorogood, Gordon, Hanley, Tracey, Magniez, Kevin, Bungar, Jenny and Fox, Bronwyn 2013, The effect of a rapid heating rate, mechanical vibration and surfactant chemistry on the structure-property relationships of epoxy/clay nanocomposites, Materials, vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 3624-3640, doi: 10.3390/ma6083624. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads nuhiji-theeffectof-2013.pdf Published version application/pdf 1.06MB 226 Title The effect of a rapid heating rate, mechanical vibration and surfactant chemistry on the structure-property relationships of epoxy/clay nanocomposites Author(s) Nuihiji, Betime Attart, Darren Thorogood, Gordon Hanley, Tracey Magniez, Kevin Bungar, Jenny Fox, Bronwyn Journal name Materials Volume number 6 Issue number 8 Start page 3624 End page 3640 Total pages 17 Publisher MDI Publishing Place of publication Basel, Switzerland Publication date 2013 ISSN 1996-1944 Keyword(s) nano-structures vibration mechanical properties rheological properties X-ray diffraction small angle X-ray scattering electron microscopy Summary The role of processing conditions and intercalant chemistry in montmorillonite clays on the dispersion, morphology and mechanical properties of two epoxy/clay nanocomposite systems was investigated in this paper. This work highlights the importance of employing complementary techniques (X-ray diffraction, small angle X-ray scattering, optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy) to correlate nanomorphology to macroscale properties. Materials were prepared using an out of autoclave manufacturing process equipped to generate rapid heating rates and mechanical vibration. The results suggested that the quaternary ammonium surfactant on C30B clay reacted with the epoxy during cure, while the primary ammonium surfactant (I.30E) catalysed the polymerisation reaction. These effects led to important differences in nanocomposite clay morphologies. The use of mechanical vibration at 4 Hz prior to matrix gelation was found to facilitate clay dispersion and to reduce the area fraction of I.30E clay agglomerates in addition to increasing flexural strength by over 40%. Language eng DOI 10.3390/ma6083624 Field of Research 099999 Engineering not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 970109 Expanding Knowledge in Engineering HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2013, MDI Publishing Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30057642 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Institute for Frontier Materials Open Access Collection GTP Research Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Tue, 12 Nov 2013, 13:56:16 EST Wed, 13 Nov 2013, 10:35:54 EST Fri, 15 Nov 2013, 13:01:14 EST Mon, 18 Nov 2013, 15:01:56 EST Fri, 22 Aug 2014, 16:14:23 EST Wed, 21 Oct 2015, 18:30:51 EST Wed, 18 Nov 2015, 07:07:36 EST Tue, 06 Sep 2016, 21:53:56 EST Tue, 05 Dec 2017, 12:43:56 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 16:44:30 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 11 times in TR Web of Science Cited 13 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 376 Abstract Views, 226 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Tue, 12 Nov 2013, 13:56:16 EST