Spherical fillers nanofillers

Spherical Particles Nanofiller with three dimensions in the nanometer regime are the spherical nanofillers obtained by sol-gel process [9, 10]. In sol-gel process the organic/inorganic hybrid material can be formed by the condensation reaction between the functionalized prepolymer and the metal alkoxides, leading to the formation of a chemical bond between the polymer and the inorganic filler. Therefore, the incorporation of filler particles in polymer through the sol-gel process avoids the aggregation of filler. 

Merkel et al. [2002, 2003] carried out studies of gas and vapor permeability and PALS free volume in a poly(4-methyl-2-pentyne) (PMP)/fumed silica (FS) nanocomposite. It was observed that gas and vapor uptake remained essentially unaltered in nanocomposites containing up to 40 wt% FS, whereas penetrant diffusivity increased systematically with the spherical nanofiller content. The increased diffusivity dictates a corresponding increase in permeability, and it was further established that the permeability of large penetrants was enhanced more than that of small penetrants. PALS analysis indicated two o-Ps annihilation components, interpreted as indicative of a bimodal distribution of free-volume nanoholes. The shorter o-Ps lifetime remained unchanged at a value T3 2.3 to 2.6 ns, with an increase in filler content. In contrast, the longer lifetime, T4, attributed to large, possibly interconnected nanoholes, increased substantially from 7.6 ns to 9.5 ns as FS content increased up to 40 wt%. 

Composites are engineered materials that contain two or more constituents with different properties that remain distinct from one another within the structure. POCs are a subset of the larger polymer composites group. The increased synthesis of POCs with different additives is necessary to satisfy the industrial demand that cannot be fulfilled by pure polymers. Additive materials can be classified as micro-and nanofillers depending on the applications of the composites. The fillers may be further subdivided as natural (plant fibers) or synthetic (glass fibers, CNT, etc.), different shapes (long or short length), flaky, fibrous, and spherical or disk-like [6]. The conventional addition of filler materials lowers the cost and improves the... 

The results obtained from the simulations of dense systems have also enabled to establish a set of simple approximate rules allowing to predict the molecular arrangements in polymer/nanofiller systems, provided that the filler particles can be considered nearly spherical and distributed... 

Figures 16.1 (a, b), 16.2 (a-b) show the SEM and 16.2(c) shows the AFM image of some of the selected composites, which reveal that nanofillers are well dispersed and embedded rather uniformly through the PS matrix. The ceramic particles appear to be well dispersed both in low- and high-concentration composites. The filler particles are uniformly distributed in all composites and the particles are almost spherical in shape with irregular boundaries. In all composites filler particles are clearly embedded in the polymer matrix. It gives clear evidence to the (0-3) connectivity of the composites. The average particle diameter is found to be less than 100 nm in all BNN-PS composites. The average diameter of the nanoceramic is calculated by the software (Nanoscope particle analyzer V531rl) attached to AFM and reported in Table 16.1 and it is found that diameter is of the order of 58 nm for BNN.

Abstract This chapter describes the influence of three-dimensional nanofillers used in elastomers on the nonlinear viscoelastic properties. In particular, this part focuses and investigates the most important three-dimensional nanoparticles, which are used to produce rubber nanocomposites. The rheological and the dynamic mechanical properties of elastomeric polymers, reinforced with spherical nanoparticles, like POSS, titanium dioxide and nanosdica, were described. These (3D) nanofillers in are used polymeric matrices, to create new, improved rubber nanocomposites, and these affect many of the system s parameters (mechanical, chemical, physical) in comparison with conventional composites. The distribution of the nanosized fillers and interaction between nanofUler-nanofiUer and nanofiller-matrix, in nanocomposite systems, is crucial for understanding their behavior under dynamic-mechanical conditions. 

Figure 1 presents the typical geometries of the nanodimensional fillers which are commonly used to modify the elastomeric matrix [5], Nanoparticles possess many shapes and sizes (Fig. 1), but primarily they have three simple geometric forms sphere, cylinder and plate type. Three-dimensional nanofillers (3D) are relatively equiaxed particles, smaller than 100 nm (often below 50 nm [6]), e.g. nano SiOa, Ti02. These nanoparticles are described in the Sects. 2.2-2.4. Sometimes in the literature, the term 3D nanofillers (spherical) is described as a zero-dimensional (OD) system, but actually OD nanofillers are represented by POSS molecules, fullerenes, crystals or quantum dots [6]. What s more, very often the term physical form of these nanoparticles is referred to as agglomerates . The dispersion of particles from agglomerates to nanoparticles seems to be a big challenge to all... 

Summing up the above results the author would claim that microparticles are far more efficient toughness modifiers than nanoparticles. The nanoeffects reported in numerous works should be linked with changes of the crosslink density in the interphase. The related changes are likely caused by the selective absorption of a given component of the resin by the nanoparticles. Note that this happens also when the nanoparticles are available in masterbatch form. Unfortunately, the related aspects e.g., cure kinetics, morphology development) have not yet been addressed by systematic studies. Nevertheless, platy fillers, present in both micro- and nanoscale at the same time, may be better toughener than spherical or fibrous nanofillers. Func-... 

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