Abstract
The modification of epoxy resin with polysulfide polymer has been carried out by keeping the ratio of polysulfide polymer and epoxy resin as constant in order to avoid phase separation. The nanocomposites have been prepared by an ex-situ technique. The effect of nanosilica loading on mechanical property, thermo-mechanical properties, morphology, and dielectric properties has been studied. It is found that the tensile properties decrease with the increase in nanosilica loading for all the nanocomposites system except for 3 wt% nanosilica loading. This has been attributed to the better dispersion of nanosilica particles in modified epoxy matrix at 3 wt % loading compared to other systems which has been observed from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) study shows that the storage modulus value and tan delta peak height is decreasing with the increase in nanosilica loading in the modified epoxy matrix. There is the increase in thermal stability with the incorporation of nanosilica in base polymer system. Dielectric study reveals that there is only one relaxation peak, and the dielectric constant value decreases with the increase in frequency as well as nanosilica loading. Fourier transfer infra-red (FTIR) study has also been carried out for the composite systems.