Reinforcement of Ball Shaped MoS(2) Nanoparticles in Epoxy Resin

Abstract

The present work involves the synthesis of molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) nanoparticles by annealing the precursor obtained from simple reflux method. XRD, FESEM and HRTEM confirmed the formation of 2H-MoS(2) with ball shaped particles, where some of them possess coalesced dumbbell morphology. The reinforcement of polysulphide modified epoxy resin (PSER) by MoS(2) with varying amounts from 0.150 to 0.200 wt% provides unique combination of the improved thermal stability, tribological and mechanical properties. XRD studies indicate interaction between the sulphur containing nanoparticles and the epoxy resin. Maximum improvements in tensile strength (440%) and toughness (534%) are observed with ball shaped MoS(2) nanoparticles (0.150 wt%)/PSER composite. Also the coefficient of friction and wear resistance show improvements of 60 and 78% respectively for 0.175 wt% loading in PSER compared to the neat resin matrix. Thermal stability is found to be improved maximum by 23 degrees C, when 5% weight loss is taken as a point of comparison. Similar studies on synthetic microcrystalline MoS(2) filled PSER show that improvements in all these properties are very inferior.