Improvement of physical–mechanical–antimicrobial activities with effect of amine-functionalized nano-ZnO-reinforced areca fibre/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites

• Published in: Polymer bulletin (Berlin, Germany) Germany), 2024-04, Vol.81 (5), p.4369-4385
• Main Authors: Dhanapal, Duraibabu, Kumar, S. M. Suresh, Rajarathinam, Manjumeena, Manivel, J., Srinivasan, Ananda Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aircraft; Aminopropyltriethoxysilane; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Carbon; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coliforms; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Composite materials; Corrosion resistance; Coupling agents; Curing; E coli; Electron microscopy; Epoxy resins; Fourier transforms; Klebsiella; Mechanical properties; Microscopy; Mixtures; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Organic Chemistry; Original Paper; Physical Chemistry; Polyethylene glycol; Polymer Sciences; Polymers; Room temperature; Soft and Granular Matter; Stability analysis; Tensile strength; Thermal stability; Thermodynamic properties; Thermogravimetric analysis; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides
• ISSN: 0170-0839; 1436-2449
• DOI: 10.1007/s00289-023-04912-4

The scope of the work is to develop in-organic–organic hybrid epoxy nanocomposites using a combination of DGEBA (CY 230) epoxy resin and areca fibre (Af) mixture in the ratio of 70:30, respectively. The mixture was reinforced with varying weight percentages (1 and 2 wt%) of surface-modified nanozinc oxide (M-nZnO) and cured with triethylene-tetra-amine (HY951) at room temperature. 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane was used as a coupling agent to introduce amine groups on the surface of ZnO and its structure was confirmed by FT-IR. The thermal stability and mechanical properties of in-organic–organic hybrid epoxy nanocomposites having different weight percentages of M-nZnO are investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Their surface morphology of in-organic–organic hybrid epoxy nanocomposites was analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The introduction of M-nZnO improved the mechanical and thermal properties of the in-organic–organic hybrid epoxy nanocomposites. The mechanical characteristics and thermal stability analyses yielded the best results with a 2 wt% addition of M-nZnO nanoparticles. The study's findings clearly suggest that 2 wt% M-nZnO with Af/DGEBA epoxy resin can be used in a wide range of high-performance applications. Interestingly, the Af/DGEBA/M-nZnO epoxy nanocomposites displayed an excellent antibacterial action against high concentrations of Gram-negative bacteria like Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.