Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
COMPOSITES PART A: APPLIED SCIENCE AND MANUFACTURING, cilt.202, ss.1-16, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
In this study, kaolin clay was ground to micro and nano sizes using a high-energy mill, was intercalated with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and subsequently modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (AMEO) silane compound. Both bulk and joint samples were prepared by doping the surface-modified kaolin particles into epoxy resin at 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0%, 4.0%, and 5.0% by weight. While the mechanical properties of the bulk epoxy composites were determined by both static tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) in single cantilever mode, the mechanical properties of the joint samples were determined by static tensile testing. The success of intercalation and surface modification was verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy analyses, and the interactions between kaolin and epoxy were further examined using FT-IR. The results revealed that the mechanical properties of both bulk composite and single lap joint samples improved with increasing kaolin particle content and varying particle size in the epoxy matrix. Specifically, composites reinforced with 2 wt% nano-kaolin exhibited a 30% increase in tensile strength and a 28.8% increase in storage modulus, while the failure load of the joints increased by 36%.