In a multi-component system, the interfacial interactions between the various components trigger the behavior of the composite under external loading and thus determine the bulk properties of the material. In the present work, composite laminates made from TiO₂ modified epoxy reinforced with glass fiber are subjected to thermal loading and the effort is made to analyze the interfacial interactions through the experimental values of storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta. The loading of TiO₂ nanoparticles in the epoxy resin is varied to also understand the effect of nanoparticle addition on the interfacial interactions through DMA. The addition of TiO₂ nanoparticles helped to increase the storage and loss modulus by improving the rigidity of the polymeric chain. To understand the effect of varying the loading of TiO₂ nanoparticles and to gauge the optimum wt.% addition of such nanoparticle, Tan delta, the degree of entanglement and the coefficient of the effectiveness of the nanofiller is found and the results indicate that the laminates successfully withstand the applied thermal load when the TiO₂ loading is kept at 2 wt.%. This optimum nanoparticle loading wt.% is further validated through the adhesion factor which is found with the help of Tan delta values.

The objective of present research work is to investigate the surface morphology and surface microhardness of unidirectional E-glass fiber epoxy composites filled with varying amount of ZnO nanofiller content such as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt% respectively. ZnO nanofiller was added to the epoxy resin matrix in varying amount (wt%) using mechanical stirrer and followed by ultrasonication process. The laminate composites were fabricated using a compression molding press technique. Further, laminate composites were subjected to individual characterization and testing according to ASTM standards. The crystalline nature of ZnO nanofiller was studied using x-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and surface morphology of ZnO nanofiller on the resin surface was examined by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental test results revealed that addition of nanofiller content by 1, 2 and 3 wt% resulted in a gradual reduction of void fraction and thereafter increase in void fraction was observed with 4 and 5 wt% of ZnO loading. The surface microhardness results indicated a linear increment with increase in ZnO nanofiller loading from 1 to 5 wt%. Further, surface topography was studied with the help of atomic force microscopy (AFM), to obtain the surface roughness values. The surface roughness values increased with increase in ZnO wt% within the epoxy resin matrix. The results of the surface analysis of the fabricated composites indicate that at higher loading of ZnO nanofiller, there is formation of clusters and agglomerates of the nanofiller which reduces the nano-scale effects of the filler and nanofillers tend to behave as micro-fillers.