Mechanical Testing of Epoxy Resin Modified with Eco-Additives

Abstract

The future belongs to biodegradable epoxies. In order to improve epoxy biodegradability, it is crucial to select suitable organic additives. The additives should be selected so as to (maximally) accelerate the decomposition of crosslinked epoxies under normal environmental conditions. However, naturally, such rapid decomposition should not occur within the normal (expected) service life of a product. Consequently, it is desirable that the newly modified epoxy should exhibit at least some of the mechanical properties of the original material. Epoxies can be modified with different additives (such as inorganics with different water uptake, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, and thermoplastics) that can increase their mechanical strength but does not lead to their biodegradability. In this work, we present several mixtures of epoxy resins together with organic additives based on cellulose derivatives and modified soya oil. These additives are environmentally friendly and should increase the epoxy’s biodegradability on the one hand without deteriorating its mechanical properties on the other. This paper concentrates mainly on the question of the tensile strength of various mixtures. Herein, we present the results of uniaxial stretching tests for both modified and unmodified resin. Based on statistical analysis, two mixtures were selected for further studies, namely the investigation of durability properties.