Evaluation of thermal properties of epoxy composites filled by nanofiller materials
S. Girish, M. Vinay, D. Saravana Bavan, Rounaq Ahmed, P. M. G. Bashir Asdaque, M. Revanasiddappa, P. Dandapani, Y. P. Ravitej
Abstract
The integration of nanofillers in epoxy matrices is found to be a very effective way to increase the thermal properties of thermosetting polymers, which are very popular. This survey cumulates the latest findings concerning the influence of nanofillers on the thermal behaviour of epoxy composites and is, therefore, an indispensable source of information for materials scientists and engineers who are interested in the design of these materials for their specific applications. Neat epoxy resins come with some difficulties such as brittleness, low thermal conductivity, and large thermal expansion coefficient, which can be easily solved by adding nanofillers. Nanofillers like carbon-nanotubes, graphenesilica nanoparticles, and metal oxides have displayed the capacity to bring substantial improvements to the thermal conductivity, as well as the thermal and dimensional stabilities of epoxy composites. The outcome of the above-mentioned nanocomposites outperforms well the neat-epoxy-based ones, which makes nanofillers applicable to a multitude of new high-tech sectors including but not exclusive to electronics thermal management, aerospace heat resistance, and high-temperature operation of automotive parts. The challenges stem from the fact that uniform nanofiller dispersion is still out of reach, constant interfacial adhesion is yet to be optimized, and cost and scalability issues persist. Only after these obstacles are tackled can we be sure that the potential of nanofillers in epoxy composites is fully exploited. It is suggested that the future research should be conducted to transform these challenges, thus enabling nanofillers’ full potential realization through the usage of these materials over increasingly extended periods and lead the path to their extension in the wide spectrum of applications. This review delivers the first unified, side-by-side evaluation of thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties for a broad spectrum of epoxy–nanofiller systems under consistent processing criteria, and proposes an integrative framework to map emerging trends, critical challenges, and future research directions in epoxy nanocomposites.