Reinforcement effect of carbon nanofillers in an epoxy resin system: Rheology, molecular dynamics, and mechanical studies

The reinforcing effect of carbon nanoparticles in an epoxy resin has been estimated with different approaches based on rheology, molecular dynamics (evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, and thermally stimulated depolarization current), and dynamic mechanical analysis. Carbon particles aggregate as the volume increases and form a fractal structure in the matrix polymer. The dispersion microstructure has been characterized by its viscoelastic properties and relaxation time spectrum. The scaling of the storage modulus and yield stress with the volume fraction of carbon shows two distinct exponents and has thus been used to determine the critical carbon volume fraction of the network formation ((Phi*) for the carbon/epoxy dispersions. At nanofiller concentrations greater than Phi*, the overall mobility of the polymer chains is restricted in both dispersions and solid nanocomposites. Therefore, (1) the relaxation spectrum of the dispersions is strongly shifted toward longer times, (2) the glass-transition temperature is increased and (3) the relaxation strength of both the secondary (0) and primary (a) relaxations increases in the nanocomposites, with respect to the pure polymer matrix. The dispersion microstructure, consisting of fractal flocs and formed above Phi*, is proposed to play the main role in the reinforcement of nanocomposites. Moreover, the network structure and the interface polymer layer (bond layer), surrounding nanoparticles, increases the relaxation strength and slows the cooperative alpha relaxation, and this results in an improvement of the mechanical properties. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.