Research and Markets: Epoxy Composites: Impact Resistance and Flame Retardancy.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c67414) has announced the addition of Epoxy Composites: Impact Resistance and Flame Retardancy to their offering.

A composite is defined as a combination of two or more materials with a distinguishable interface. The urge to improve the properties of composite materials, has prompted materials scientists to investigate composites with lower and lower reinforcement size, leading to the development of microcomposites and the recent trend in composite research is nanocomposites (with nanometer scale reinforcements). Polymer matrix composite (PMC) can be processed at a much lower temperature, compared to composites with other types of matrix. Depending on the types of polymer matrices, PMC are classified as thermosetting composites and thermoplastic composites. In this present review, thermosetting composites with epoxy matrices will be discussed in detail.

Over the last three decades, the use of PMC, has increased tremendously and this dramatic growth is expected to continue in the future. The composites possess many useful properties such as high specific stiffness and strength, dimensional stability, adequate electrical properties and excellent corrosion resistance. The implications are easy transportability, high payload for vehicle, low stress for rotating parts, high ranges for rockets and missiles, which make them attractive for both the civil and defense applications. The composite industry is currently dominated by thermosetting resins namely epoxy, vinyl ester, unsaturated polyester, phenolic, polyimides, cyanate ester etc. This is because of their availability, relative ease of processing, lower cost of capital equipment for processing and low material cost.

Topics covered include:

-   Thermosetting Composites
-   Epoxy Resins
-   Impact Resistant Epoxy Composites
-   Modification of Epoxy Matrix
-   Nanoreinforcement of Epoxy
-   Simultaneous Nanoreinforcement and Toughening
-   Fire Retardant Epoxy Composites
-   Fire Retardant Resin Composition

This review will be of interest to anyone who manufactures or plans to use epoxy composites.

This detailed and state-of-the-art review is supported by an indexed section containing approximately 300 key references and abstracts selected from the Polymer Library.

About the Author

Dr Debdatta Ratna has been working as a scientist in Naval Materials Research Laboratory, Ambernath, India, for last 14 years. He did his MSc in Chemistry, MTech in Materials Science and Engineering and PhD in Polymer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He was a visiting scientist to Monash University, Australia on a BOYSCAST fellowship in 2000, sponsored by DST, India. He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship in 2006 to carry out research work in Germany. He has visited several Universities in Australia, United States of America and Germany and delivered many lectures. His areas of interest are toughening of thermosetting resins, composites, nanocomposites, adhesives, vibration damping materials, nonlinear optical polymers, and shape memory polymers. He has worked extensively on chemical modification of epoxy resin for the development of high performance fibre-reinforced composites and shock-resistant adhesives. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed international journals and is a referee for several international journals.

Content Outline:

1. Introduction

2. Thermosetting Composites

3. Epoxy Resins

4. Epoxy Composites

5. Impact Resistant Epoxy Composites

6. Modification of Epoxy Matrix

7. Nanoreinforcement of Epoxy

8. Simultaneous Nanoreinforcement and Toughening

9. Fire Retardant Epoxy Composites

10. Fire Retardant Resin Compositions

11. Summary and Outlook

12. List of Abbreviation and Acronyms

13. Additional References

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c67414.