On the Response to Hygrothermal Ageing of Fully Recyclable Flax and Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites.

The present work studies the response to hygrothermal ageing of natural fibre composites (NFCs) against synthetic fibre composites when using three different types of polymers as matrices. For ageing, coupons were fully immersed in distilled water at 23, 40, and 60 °C for a total ageing period of 56 days. Flax fibre-reinforced composites, using two recyclable polymer systems: (i) a bio-based recyclable epoxy and (ii) an acrylic-based liquid thermoplastic resin, were tested against conventional glass fibre-reinforced composites employing a synthetic (petroleum-based) epoxy.

Theoretical and Experimental Determination of Thermomechanical Properties of Epoxy-SiO Nanocomposites.

Improvements in the thermomechanical properties of epoxy upon inclusion of well-dispersed SiO nanoparticles have been demonstrated both experimentally and through molecular dynamics simulations. The SiO was represented by two different dispersion models: dispersed individual molecules and as spherical nanoparticles. The calculated thermodynamic and thermomechanical properties were consistent with experimental results.