Hollow glass microsphere-reinforced epoxy hollow spheres were prepared by a “rolling ball method” using expanded polystyrene beads, hollow glass microspheres, and epoxy resin. The three-phase epoxy syntactic foam was fabricated by combining hollow glass microsphere as a lightweight filler with EP and hollow glass microsphere by a “molding method”.
The hollow glass microsphere and epoxy curing agent systems were well mixed by scanning electron microscopy. Experiments show that higher hollow glass microsphere stack volume fraction, lower hollow glass microsphere layer number, higher hollow glass microsphere diameter, lower hollow glass microsphere density, higher hollow glass microsphere volume fraction, and lower hollow glass microsphere density result in a decrease in the density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam.
However, the above factors have the opposite effect on the compressive strength of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. Therefore, in order to obtain the “high-strength and low-density” three-phase epoxy syntactic foam, the influence of various factors should be considered comprehensively to achieve the best balance of compressive strength and density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. This can provide some advice for the preparation of buoyancy materials for deep sea operations.
This article comes from acs edit released
