Abstract

Epoxy resin and its modified products are common thermosetting plastics that have been used extensively in human life due to their exceptional properties, such as packaging advanced electronics, bonding heterogeneous materials in aerospace structures, and even reinforcing building structures. This paper reviews the basic properties of epoxy resin, focusing on its mechanical properties, especially the mechanical properties after doping with nanomaterials and modification. In civil engineering, epoxy resin is widely used for reinforcement and repair of concrete structures. Among them, the functionalized fabrics impregnated with epoxy resin can improve the ductility and strength of concrete materials. In addition, 3D printing technology combined with epoxy resin shows great potential in the design of building materials. Although epoxy resin has excellent performance, its brittleness caused by high crosslinking density limits its application. Its crack resistance is poor and cannot meet the requirements of some buildings and road construction. Therefore, more attempts are needed for the research of epoxy resins. In the future, research on epoxy resins can be conducted from the aspects of modifying epoxy resins by molecular design, doping them with nanoparticles or using them as a matrix for the production of composite materials, thereby improving their mechanical properties uniformly, in order to widen their application in civil engineering.

Keywords:Polymers; Epoxy resin; Mechanical behavior; Civil engineering; 3D printing; Modification