COMPOSITES SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ›› 2025, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (2): 82-90.DOI: 10.19936/j.cnki.2096-8000.20250228.011

• DESIGN AND TECHNIQUE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Toughening vinyl ester resin by silane-modified graphene oxide

YANG Ruirui1, WANG Yating1, RAN Xiaolu2, LIU Wanshuang2*   

  1. 1. Luoyang Ship Material Research Institute, Luoyang 471039, China;
    2. Center for Civil Aviation Composites, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
  • Received:2023-10-19 Online:2025-02-28 Published:2025-03-25

Abstract: Vinyl ester resin, a class of general thermosetting polymers, are widely used in various industrial applications. However, cured vinyl ester resins exhibit high cross-linking density, making them brittle and prone to cracking under impact loads. In this work, silane coupling agent (KH570) was grafted on the surface of graphene oxide (GO) through a one-step reaction to obtain modified GO (m-GO). Microscopic examination showed that m-GO presented improved dispersibility in the vinyl ester resin matrix compared with unmodified GO. Accordingly, m-GO exhibits a superior toughening effect on vinyl ester resins. Compared with the neat vinyl ester resin, the addition of 0.4wt% m-GO gives 40% and 32% enhancement in critical stress intensity factor (KⅠC) and the critical strain energy release rate (GⅠC), respectively. Moreover, the addition of m-GO has almost no impact on the glass transition temperature and thermal stability of vinyl ester resins.

Key words: vinyl ester resins, toughening modification, graphene oxide, silane coupling agent, composite material

CLC Number: