ABSTRACT
New developments in the synthesis of polymer composites have enabled the processing of exciting new, cheap, and biocompatible fillers for epoxy composites. This chapter is concerned with the modification of epoxy resin, Epoxy-520 with commercial gypsum G-5. Particles of gypsum were incorporated (10–75 wt%) into an epoxy-dian resin Epoxy-520. It formed additional filler structures in composite, which is related to the products of crystallization of gypsum under the action of the water admixtures and atmospheric water.
It is shown that the introduction of the gypsum “alabaster G-5” in epoxydian resin allows us to obtain the composites with acceptable compressive strength, resistance to water and solvents, improved abrasion resistance, and greatly improved (1.3–1.7 times that of control resin) adhesion to steel.
The fire-resistance of composites increases (1.5–2 times) due to the presence of a gypsum content, due to domination of inflammable inorganic phase and reduction of polymer phase content.
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Resistance to a physically aggressive organic environment (acetone, ink-solvent) after filling will increase significantly in all cases. However, chemical resistance in nitric acid was not observed. Microscopy shows a substantial compaction of the composite with increase in the filling, which is due to reducing the number and size of the pores. This is confirmed by the sharp decrease in swelling of the composite in the ink-solvent with increasing filler content. The results allow us to propose a method of producing a hardened and cheapened polyepoxide composites for industrial and municipal applications.
