Abstract
The present paper studies the effect of the diameter of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on mechanical properties of SWCNTs reinforced epoxy resin composites. Bulk atomistic models of epoxy resin-SWCNTs with different compositions were built and were subject of an extensive multistage equilibration procedure. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to estimate glass transition temperature (Tg) and Young’s modulus of epoxy resin and epoxy resin/SWCNTs composites. The Young’s moduli generally increased with increasing of SWCNTs content and values range from 1.83 GPa in the case of pure epoxy resins to 3.21 GPa for epoxy resin/SWCNTs (8,8) composite system. Overall, the agreement between predicted values of the material properties and experimental data in the literature is satisfactory. Keywords: atomistic molecular modeling; mechanical properties; SWCNTs- epoxy resin composites, glass transition temperature