Fracture energy and mechanical properties of toughened epoxy resin with eggshell powder

Eggshells are daily food waste disposed of in landfills, producing environmental issues and an unpleasant odour. Eggshells powder may be suitably applied as a filler in epoxy resins to improve their mechanical properties. The material properties and fracture energy of toughened epoxy with eggshell powder (TEEP) were measured and investigated. Dog-bone specimens were fabricated to investigate the mechanical properties of TEEP (i.e. elastic modulus, Poisson's ratios and tensile strength) and tested under quasi-static tensile loading. Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) and End-Notched Flexure (ENF) tests were used to determine the mode I and Mode II fracture energies of TEEP specimens, respectively. For this purpose, oven-dried eggshells were crushed into particles size of 100 µm. The volume fraction of eggshell powder as filler in TEEP is designated as 0%, 2.5%, 5%, and 10%. The epoxy resin system was made by mixing EPIKOTE Resin 828 and Hardener 651 with a mixing ratio of 5:2 by weight. The results showed that the tensile strength, elastic modulus, fracture energy in Mode I and Mode II were optimum at TEEP 5% with an enhancement of 36.8%, 24.9%, 60.3% and 166.3%, respectively compared to that of neat epoxy. This is due to better surface roughness and the ability of eggshell powder as a crack arrestor. However, TEEP with 10% eggshell prone to agglomeration of eggshell powder caused poor bonding with epoxy resin and affect the mechanical properties.