A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF GLASS TRANSITION TEMPERATURE ON EPOXY/ALUMINA NANOCOMPOSITES

Abstract

The modification of polymer properties through the addition of nanoparticles has lead to the development of the so-called nanocomposites. The purpose of this study was to observe the glass transition temperature by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) in epoxy/alumina nanocomposites. Analysis was carried-out for different volume fractions, ranging from 2.5% to 10%. The results showed that the glass transition temperature (Tg) is generally higher in the samples with nanoparticles; however, the observed Tg showed no variation with nanoparticle concentration. For the final version of this study, analysis of Termogravimetric Analisys (TGA) was performed to confirm the nanoparticle volume fraction and the DSC results.