Wear and mechanical properties of epoxy/SiO2-TiO2 composites

Preparation of epoxy/SiO2-TiO2 composites is investigated in this paper. The products are characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. Results of FT-IR spectroscopy and atom force microscope (AFM) demonstrated that epoxy chains have been covalently bonded to the surface of the SiO2-TiO2 particles. The particles sized of SiO2-TiO2 are about 20–50 nm, which characterized by AFM. The properties of composites such as impact strength, flexural strength, tensile strength and ring-on-block wear are also investigated. Dry sliding wear tests showed that the SiO2-TiO2 particles could improve the wear resistance of the epoxy matrix even though the content of the SiO2-TiO2 particles was at a relatively low level (1.95–2.65 wt%). This makes it possible to develop novel type of epoxy-based materials with improved wear resistance for various applications. The worn surface was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mechanisms for the improvement are discussed in this paper