Correlation of epoxy material properties with the toughening effect of fullerene-like WS2 nanoparticles

Abstract This work deals with the toughening effect of inorganic, fullerene-like WS2 (IF-WS2) nanoparticles (NPs) on epoxy. It has been hypothesized that this toughening effect depends on the epoxy’s cross-link density, its molecular defect fraction or its reference fracture toughness K Ic . Seven different epoxy systems were filled with 0.5% laboratory-made IF-WS2 NPs by mass and investigated in order to analyze which material properties are determining the toughening effect. These NPs were similar to commercially available IF-WS2 NPs, but their agglomerates could not be broken up as successfully and they yielded less toughening effect. The cross-link density of the epoxies measured via dy…