Azin PaydayeshU - Polymer Engineering Group, Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box: ۱۴۱۱۵-۱۱۴, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mehrdad Kokabi
Ahmad Reza Bahramian

Phenolic resin (PR) have been widely used as coating, adhesives, composites, etc. due to their excellent flame and chemical resistance, thermal stability and dimensional stability properties However their brittleness has significantly limited their widespread applications.In this work, highly filled clay nanocomposite systems based on asbestos- phenolic system are prepared and investigated by XRD, 3 point bending test, SEM and TOM microscopy.The results showed improvement of fracture toughness of highly filled nanocomposites by adding organoclay in nanocomposite.The toughening mechanism of highly filled nanocomposite is crack branching due to flake shape and strength of clay sheets.

Highly Filled Nanocomposites, Toughening Mechanism, Phenolic Resin