The mechanisms and mechanics of the toughening of epoxy polymers modified with silica nanoparticles

The present paper considers the mechanical and fracture properties of four different epoxy polymers containing 0, 10 and 20 wt.% of well-dispersed silica nanoparticles. Firstly, it was found that, for any given epoxy polymer, their Young’s modulus steadily increased as the volume fraction, vf, of the silica nanoparticles was increased. Modelling studies showed that the measured moduli of the different silica-nanoparticle filled epoxy polymers...