Development of Epoxy Resin Composites with De-Icing Properties

The use of epoxy resin-based composites began in the last century with the first applications in the field of aeronautical, mechanical and naval engineering. Recently, the remarkable properties of these materials, and the decrease of the production cost, are also advantageously exploited in the restoration and structural adaptation of reinforced concrete elements or in masonry. Carbon Fibers Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) have been employed in civil engineering for the realization of assembled structures, such as bridges and footbridges, offshore structures, and the construction of experimental buildings. This paper focuses on the design of structural resins which can be easily activated for the anti/deicing function. In particular, the efficiency of the Joule effect in the heating of nanomaterials has been analysed for three different types of nanocomposites containing incorporated MWCNTs and two different grades of expanded graphite. These nanomaterials can be used for the impregnation of GFRPs or CFRPs or in the form of coating. The employed graphites strongly differ among them on the aspect ratio. The performed tests highlight that this last parameter significantly affects the achieved value of temperature for higher values of applied power. The resin containing MWCNTs has proven to be the best performing system both in terms of applied voltages and maximum temperature achieved by the sample. Expanded graphites, instead, can be advantageously applied to maintain low the viscosity of the nanomaterials during the processing stages.