The Preparation Of Potassium Titanate Whisker And Its Application In Epoxy Resin Composite Materials Research

Potassium titanate whisker（PTW） is a kind of multifunctional inorganic materialwith a chain tunnel-like structure. By addition of PTW, the polymer materials cangreatly improve their mechanical properties and thermal properties. However, thequality of PTW has been the main factor that affecting the performance of composites.Therefore, synthesizing the high-quality and low-cost PTW is an important step topromote the application of PTW.In order to explore the technological conditions of the PTW above, firstly, thispaper optimized the technological parameters of KDC method to prepare PTW. Theresults show that with the molar ratio（Ti/K） of5.5, calcination temperature of1100℃, and calcination time of5h, the obtained PTW has average15.6ratio of length todiameter and uniform morphology.Secondly, PTW was prepared by the improved KDC method with vanadiumpentoxide（V₂O₅） as the additive. The effect of the appropriate amount of V₂O₅,calcination temperation and time on the structure and properties of PTW wereinvestigated. It is found that V₂O₅can lower calcination temperature by TG-DSCcurve. Then the suitable calcination temperature, time and amount of V₂O₅wereidentified by XRD and SEM. The results show that with calcination temperature of800℃, calcination time of5h、2%of V₂O₅, the synthesized PTW has average22ratio of length to diameter, good crystallinity and uniform morphology. Moreover, theaddition of V₂O₅not only can improve PTW’s quality, but also reduce energyconsumption.Finally, further research of the modification on composites was applied onthermoset epoxy resin（EP）, and glass fiber（GF） was used as the support. ThePTW/GF/EP composites were prepared via lamination method, which can be used asPC and TV base plates. The mechanical and thermal properties of the compositeswere measured. The results show that coupling agent of KH-560and KH-792canefficiently improve the interfacial properties of PTW and GF, respectively. Byaddition of the PTW after surface treatment, both the tensile and bending properties ofthe composites increase. While the content of modified PTW was about6%, thecomposites had the best performance. FTIR results show that, with3%KH-560, the glass fiber can form a stable chemical interface. TG results reveal that, PTW canimprove the thermal decomposition temperature, and decreace the thermalconductivity of composites obviously. XRD results demonstrate that, the structure ofPTW in composites remains intact. Furthermore, the combination of PTW and glassfiber has a synergistic effect on improving the properties of the composites as well.