Submitted to: Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 8, 2002
Publication Date: N/A
Technical Abstract: The importance of natural products for industrial applications becomes very clear with increasing social emphasis on the issues of environment, waste disposal and depleting non-renewable resources. Development of economically feasible new industrial products from vegetable oils or commercial processes is highly desirable. Nanostructured materials often possess a combination of physical and mechanical properties not present on conventional composites. The purpose of this work is to investigate the preparation of soybean oil/epoxy/clay based composites. The mixture of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), epoxy resin and clay are solidified with di, tri and polyethylene amine curing agents. The high strength composites are formed through fiber reinforcement, such as glass, carbon and mineral fibers. The shapes of composites can be formed by solid freeform fabrication method, a method to form shapes without molds. The influence of curing temperature, fiber concentration, clay concentration and fiber combination on the mechanical properties of composites are studied and reported.