Effect of functionalized carbon nanofillers on the rheological behavior of structural epoxy resins

In this paper, functionalization of the carbon-based nanofillers has been carried out and the effect of the functionalization on the rheological properties of structural epoxy resins has been analyzed. The rheological behavior of filled epoxy resins highlights very attractive advantages from the performed functionalization. Besides its special capability for avoiding agglomeration in the nanofiller dispersion step, it also incisively contributes to a decrease in the viscosity of the investigated nanocomposites. This result is really crucial for many industrial applications, where the increase in the viscosity of nanofilled formulations prevents their use thus not allowing to exploit the advantages of nanocomposites in real applications.