Toughening Mechanisms of Devulcanized Rubber Modified Epoxy Based Composites Reinforced With Zirconia

Recently, there is a high demand of multi-functional, lightweight materials in aerospace and automotive industries due to certain environmental regulations. Epoxy-recycled rubber based structural composites are used in these industries thanks to their advantageous properties such as good mechanical strength and hardness, wear resistance, as well as thermal and chemical resistance. Also, using of recycled rubber offers a cost effective and environmental perspective for the component manufacturers in these areas. In these industries, an efficient engineering development process requires the data for basic material parameters. In these study, authors are focused on the design of epoxy- devulcanized recycled rubber composites reinforced with zirconia (ZrO2) in different weight percentages. Very hard nature of zirconia is thought to play a key role to meet the demands. During this study, tribological, mechanical and physical properties of these composite systems are studied. Physical properties are determined with dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Wear resistance was examined by means of scratch tests. Three-point bending, fracture and nano indentation tests are carried out to evaluate mechanical properties. As the final step, fracture surfaces are observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify damage mechanisms of these composites.