Abstract
Polymers have been in existence since the beginning of time, in different forms such as shell, tar etc. but in the 20th century, it began to be modified chemically and synthetically and its variants became applicable in many industries. Since then, other means of achieving better methods of polymer materials have been explored. This study aims to achieve the use of hybrid of stainless steel and iron (iii) oxide for reinforcing polymer composites by using epoxy resin. Various material characterizations were conducted on the stainless steel, iron (iii) oxide and the hybrid composite material produced by reinforcing it in epoxy resin. To fabricate the samples, the particles were reinforced into the epoxy matrix at different weight percentages. The polymer samples produced were characterized by conducting mechanical and microstructural analysis such as impact, hardness, scanning electron microscopy, and electron dispersive spectroscopy. The results showed that the addition of the iron (iii) oxide particles increases the hardness property of the hybrid polymer composites. The polymer produced with hybrid reinforcements showed higher hardness value when compared to the samples produced with only the epoxy resin without any reinforcement. The application of silane in the hybrid composite makes it to be more brittle. The reinforced composites produced in this research can be recommended for applications where hard and brittle materials are required for the functionalized sample.
M.Ing. (Mechanical Engineering)