Preparation and evaluation of mechanical and physical properties of random silica fiber/modified resole resin composites

In this study,composites of short silica fibre (ssf) and modified ammonium phenolic resole resin (mrr) were prepared by blending of ammonium phenolic resole resin with 15phr polyvinylbutyral (pvb). different weight ratio of short silica fiber (ssf) reinforced (pvb) modified resole phenolic resin composites were fabricated. ftir was used to study the chemical structure of modified and unmodified resole resin. thermal decomposition of mrr and ssf/mrr composites were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (dsc) and thermogravimetric analysis (tga). tensile,flexural and impact strength tests of the composites were conducted to investigate the effect of ssf content on ssf/mrr composites. the interaction between fiber and resin was studied by scanning electron microscope (sem) and optical microscopy. the results showed that ssf/mrr composites were prepared through simple and low-cost hot-compression molding without using interfacial promoting bonding agent and that mrr matrix can be loaded up to 65wt% short silica fibres. a good pvb and resole resin (mixture of 85 % resole resin and 15 % pvb) compatibility was confirmed by ftir and dsc. the mechanical properties such as tensile strength (28.4mpa),flexural strength (155.03mpa),flexural young's modulus (12.81gpa),and impact strength (42.04kj/m2) of ssf/mrr composites showed optimum value at 55wt% fibre content. deformation and fracture behavior of ssf/mrr composites were also investigated and correlated with the mechanical property data and microscopic examination. water absorption,void content and density of composites were also determined. © 2017,university of mohammed premier oujda morocco.