Comparative studies of silane coupled e-glass fiber and e-glass fiber reinforced bismaleimide-epoxy hydroxylated BaTiO3 nanocomposites on the dielectric and mechanical properties

Abstract

Silane coupled E-glass fiber (SC-EGF) and E-glass fiber (EGF) reinforced bismaleimide (BMI)-epoxy-hydroxylated BaTiO3 (BTOH) nanocomposites with 1–5 wt% of BTOH nanofiller were fabricated by hand lay-up method and compression molded. Surface hydroxylation of synthesized BaTiO3 nanoparticles was carried out using H2O2. Both BT and BTOH nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, XRD, and FTIR studies. Among the reinforced nanocomposites, SC-EGF-reinforced showed a remarkable increase in mechanical and dielectric properties. The tensile strength of BMI-epoxy composite increased 1.56 and 3.10 times when loaded with 2 and 3 wt% of BTOH, respectively. Their flexural strength too increased 2.14 and 2.21 times upon 2 and 3 wt% of BTOH loading. BMI-epoxy-BTOH nanocomposites with 3 wt% of BTOH showed higher tensile strength, flexural strength, and dielectric strength indicating that it possesses better mechanical and insulating properties and composites with 2 wt% showed higher dielectric constant and lower dielectric loss indicating that this composition could be explored to high dielectric applications.