Polymer nanocomposite

About: Polymer nanocomposite is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8977 publications have been published within this topic receiving 297599 citations.

Graphene Oxide−Polyelectrolyte Nanomembranes

Abstract: Owing to its remarkable electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, graphene, an atomic layer of carbon, is considered to be an excellent two-dimensional filler for polymer nanocomposites with outstanding mechanical strength along with the potential for excellent electrical and thermal properties. One of the critical limitations with conventional fillers is that the loading fraction required for achieving significant improvement in mechanical properties is relatively high, frequently reaching 50% for maximum strength. Here, we demonstrate that the mechanical properties of ultrathin laminated nanocomposites can be significantly enhanced by the incorporation of small amounts of a dense monolayer of planar graphene oxide (GO) flakes. Negatively charged functionalized graphene oxide layers were incorporated into polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) fabricated in a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly via Langmuir−Blodgett (LB) deposition. These LbL-LB graphene oxide nanocomposite films were released as robust free...

Constructing hierarchically structured interphases for strong and tough epoxy nanocomposites by amine-rich graphene surfaces

Abstract: The exquisite structure of natural materials manifests the importance of particle mobility and load transfer in developing advanced polymer nanocomposites; however, it is difficult to concurrently meet these two mutually exclusive requirements. To address this issue, we demonstrate an approach that constructs a hierarchical, flexible interphase structure in epoxy nanocomposites through a local amine-rich environment around graphene sheets (GNs) and volume exclusion effect of grafting chains. Long-chain aromatic amines, which are chemically similar to the curing agent, are covalently bonded on the surface of GNs by diazonium addition. They play multifold roles in the structure formation of epoxy composites, (1) promoting the exfoliation and molecular level dispersion of GNs in the matrix, (2) serving as a linker between GNs and epoxy networks for improved load transfer, (3) modulating the stoichiometric ratio around GNs to construct a hierarchical structure that can dissipate more strain energy during fracture. With the addition of 0.6 wt% amine-functionalized GNs, the resulting composite exhibits significant mechanical improvements, 93.8 and 91.5% increases in fracture toughness and flexural strength, respectively. This approach affords a novel design strategy for developing high-performance structural composites.

Vertically Aligned and Interconnected Boron Nitride Nanosheets for Advanced Flexible Nanocomposite Thermal Interface Materials

Abstract: The continuous evolution toward semiconductor technology in the “more-than-Moore” era and rapidly increasing power density of modern electronic devices call for advanced thermal interface materials (TIMs). Here, we report a novel strategy to construct flexible polymer nanocomposite TIMs for advanced thermal management applications. First, aligned polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) supported and interconnected 2D boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) composite fiber membranes were fabricated by electrospinning. Then, the nanocomposite TIMs were constructed by rolling the PVA/BNNS composite fiber membranes to form cylinders and subsequently vacuum-assisted impregnation of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) into the porous cylinders. The nanocomposite TIMs not only exhibit a superhigh through-plane thermal conductivity enhancement of about 10 times at a low BNNS loading of 15.6 vol % in comparison with the pristine PDMS but also show excellent electrical insulating property (i.e., high volume electrical resistivity). The outstandi...