Thermal Behaviour of Epoxy Composites Filled with Micro-sized LD Slag Particulates.

This article reports an investigation of the thermal behaviour of the epoxy/LD-slag composites prepared by hand layup method at varied loading of filler from 0 wt. % to 40 wt. %. The main aim of the work is to establish hazardous industrial waste as a filler material for the development of polymer composites. The thermal conductivity of neat epoxy is 0.15 W/m-K and the same improves to 0.292 W/m-K with the addition of 40 wt. % LD-slag. The addition of LD slag appreciably improves the epoxy matrix's thermal stability by increasing its degradation temperature at different levels along with the enhancement in the char residue. The maximum glass transition temperature of 74.74 oC is attained for a filler loading of 20 wt. %, whereas, a negligible reduction is observed at higher filler loading. Further, the material's specific heat capacity also progressed with the inclusion of LD slag and reached 1.115 kJ/kg-oC showing an increment of 57.7 over the neat epoxy resin for a combination of epoxy/40 wt. % LD slag composite. The coefficient of thermal expansion gainfully declines with filler loading and decreases by 14.18 % for 40 wt.% of LD slag. The minimum coefficient of thermal expansion value registered is 59.3 × 10-6/oC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]