Abstract

Nanocomposites have attracted the attention of scientists during the past few decades due to their superior mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrical characteristics. This paper studies the potential of using Nanoclay woven Kevlar laminated composites to enhance the impact the mechanical and thermal performance. The variation of Nanoclay percentage usually lead to different thermal characteristics of the resulting composite. Various percentages of Nanoclay added to the woven Kevlar composites were studied ranging from 0% to 9.4%. The results showed that the nanoclay reinforced composites showed a considerable change in the thermal characteristics of the considered samples. Thermal gravitational and differential scanning calorimetry analysis were performed and it was found that the decomposition temperature of the pure vinylester was increased by the addition of the Nanoclay, whereas the glass transition temperature was little affected. The results of the infrared spectrum analysis indicated the presence of both nano materials and polymers at various frequencies.