High energy mill processing of polymer based nanocomposites

Polymer matrix nanocomposites have attracted growing attention due to the potential for significantly improving the properties of the polymer by adding a very small amount of nanoparticles. However, the improvement in properties has been related to the degree of dispersion of the nanoparticles in the polymer matrix and, due to their enormous specific surface area, nanoparticles tend to agglomerate. Thus, processing techniques able to produce complete particle dispersion in polymer matrix are of great interest. The purpose of this work is to present a new processing technique for polymer matrix nanocomposites using a high energy mill as an effective approach to disperse ceramic nanoparticles in a polymer matrix. SiO2/epoxy nanocomposites were processed with various SiO2 contents using the proposed approach. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs of the nanocomposites processed indicated good particle dispersion. In addition, agglomerates were not observed on the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) fractographs of the nanocomposites, up to 3 wt% SiO2. The processed nanocomposites were also characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) to investigate the effect of nanoparticles content on the viscoelastic properties and on the glass transition temperature. In summary, the technique was found promising in achieving good levels of particle dispersion in a thermoset polymer matrix.