Improving the Performance of Characteristics Unsaturated Polyester Polymer By Adding The Nano Zirconia with Polypropylene Fiber

Authors

  • Reem Alaa Mohammed , Marwah Subhi Attallah

Abstract

Zirconia nanoparticles with mat fiber of polypropylene in unsaturated polyester resin are used to
improve the performance characteristics of tensile strength, flexural strength, flexural modulus, compressive
strength, impact strength, hardness shore D, water absorption and thermal conductivity which can be used in
different engineering applications. The nanocomposites consisting of unsaturated polyester resin with (4%
weight fraction) mat fiber of polypropylene and (1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% weight fraction) nanoparticles zirconia.
The nanoparticle size distribution of zirconia is measured using the atomic force microscope technique, where
the average size range is (38 nm). In this paper, the characteristics results are analyzed by using the (SPSS)
software. The results showed that adding 4% wt. nanoparticles zirconia with the 4% wt. mat fibers of
polypropylene to unsaturated polyester resin improved the tensile strength, flexural strength, flexural modulus,
compressive strength, and hardness D (476.67±6.506 MPa, 307.00±5.000 MPa, 9.4467±.04809 GPa,
164.67±5.000 MPa, 84.633±.3200 shore D) respectively. While adding 3% wt. zircona nanoparticles with the
4% wt. mat fibers of polypropylene to unsaturated polyester resin improved the impact strength
(11.9433±.04509 J/m2). Furthermore, the Increasing weight fraction of zirconia nanoparticles (1% to 4%),
reduces the mean of the water absorption and thermal conductivity values. The ANOVA analysis showed that
the weight fraction of zirconia nanoparticles has clearly affected the characteristics of the nanocomposites
prepared. It is clear from the above results that adding zirconia nanoparticles and the mat fibers of
polypropylene into unsaturated polyester resin improved the properties of the polymeric nanocomposites.

Published

2020-02-28

Issue

Section

Articles