Study on the Properties of Microwave Curing Epoxy Resin/Nano-Fe Composite Materials

Abstract

Nano-Fe particles were selected as microwave-absorber, and added in the epoxy resin. Epoxy resin/nano-Fe composite materials were cured by microwave irradiation and heating. Vector network analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis(DMA) and scanning electron microscope(SEM) were used to study the curing behaviors of composite materials under the different curing ways. Results show that the dielectric constant(εr) and the dielectric loss factor(tanδ) of the epoxy resin increased obviously when nano-Fe particles were added, and microwave absorption properties of epoxy resin/nano-Fe composite materials improved greatly with increasing contents of nano-Fe particles. DMA results indicate that the storage modulus (E’) and glass transition temperature(Tg) of epoxy resin samples with nano-Fe particles were higher than those without nano-Fe particles. The microstructure and phase composition of the samples were studied by SEM and EDX. Results show that nano-Fe particles were homogeneously dispersed in the epoxy resin matrix under microwave irradiation, which implies improved strength and toughness of epoxy resin/nano-Fe composite materials.