Stacking Faults and Microstructural Parameters in Epoxy – Nylon Fabric – Clay Hybrid Laminates Using X –Ray Whole Powder Pattern Fitting Technique.

Abstract

The changes in micro structural parameters in Epoxy – Nylon fabric laminates with 0.1 to 0.7 phr clay reinforcements have been studied using X-ray whole powder pattern fitting technique. The crystal imperfection parameters such as crystallite size <N>, lattice strain (g in %) have been determined by line profile analysis (LPA) using Fourier method of Warren. Stacking faults (αd) and twin faults (β) are also determined by this method. The correlation index shows that there is a linear relationship between the stacking and twin fault density with crystallite size and it is observed that, the stacking and twin fault density increases with increase in average crystallite size. It is well known that the Fourier method gives a reliable set of micro structural parameters and we have shown that in addition to these values, one can also compute reliable fault probabilities which are very small in Epoxy – Nylon fabric laminates.