Highly thermally conducting polyamide 6 (PA6) composites with high loadings of low-temperature expandable graphite (LTEG) were prepared by an in situ exfoliation melting process, and the thermal conductivity of the composites was measured by a hot-disk method. A two-point method was applied to evaluate the electrical conductivity of the composites with various graphite loadings, and the thermal percolation was observed in the vicinity of the electrical percolation threshold concentration. Dynamic rheology analysis was used to define the geometric change caused by the interconnection of the in situ exfoliated graphite flakes. X-ray diffraction measurement confirmed that the exfoliation of LTEG was crucial to the overall thermal conductivity of the composites. Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that the incorporation of LTEG significantly improved the damping properties of PA6. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry measurements were applied to study the thermal properties of the investigated PA6/LTEG composites.

Siloxane modified epoxy resin with good toughness and high thermal residual weight has been successfully prepared and has potential applications in anti-corrosion coatings and structure bonding materials.

Organic and inorganic hybrid nanocomposites based on poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) and silica nanoparticles were prepared by a melt blending process. In particular, polymer nanocomposites consisting mostly of cheap conventional polyesters with very small quantities of inorganic nanoparticles are of great interest from an industrial perspective. The crystallization behavior of PEN/silica hybrid nanocomposites depended significantly on silica content and crystallization temperature. The activation energy of crystallization for PEN/silica hybrid nanocomposites was decreased by incorporating a small quantity of silica nanoparticles. Double melting behavior was observed in PEN/silica hybrid nanocomposites, and the equilibrium melting temperature decreased with increasing silica content. The fold surface free energy of PEN/silica hybrid nanocomposites decreased with increasing silica content. The work of chain folding (q) for PEN was estimated as 7.28 Ý 10 -20 J per molecular chain fold, while the q values for the PEN/silica 0.9 hybrid nanocomposite was 3.71 Ý 10 -20 J, implying that the incorporation of silica nanoparticles lowers the work required to fold the polymer chains.