An investigation of thermogravimetric analysis and thermal conductivity of glass fibre epoxy resin composites modified with silicon carbide, manganese, and copper nanoparticles (NPs)

Abstract. In the current work, the effect of copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), and silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles on the thermal stability and conductivity of glass fiber-epoxy resin composites was discussed. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was done as per ASTM E 1131 to study the thermal degradation of composites from 30°C to 800°C. Thermal conductivity increases with the percentage of fillers of SiC, Mn, and Cu nanoparticles in the GFER polymer composites. The combination of epoxy, Glass Fibre and SiC nanoparticle-loaded composites was found highest thermal conductivity. TGA discloses that for SiC, Mn and Cu NPs glass fibre epoxy resin composites thermal stability increased with the percentage weight fraction of nanoparticles. The addition of nanoparticles to glass fibre epoxy resin polymer composites causes an increase in thermal properties due to the nanoparticles acting as catalysts for decomposition and less mass loss observed in TGA. The Thermal Conductivity of 20% SiC nanoparticles were found to be 0.37 W/mK. In Overall comparison, SiC nanoparticle-loaded composites exhibit significantly improved thermal stability and are more suited where the heat transfer plays the predominant role in high thermal conductivity and more thermal stability application fields.