A continuum-based elastic micromechanics model is developed for silica nanoparticle/polyimide composites with various nanoparticle/polyimide interfacial treatments. The model incorporates the molecular structures of the nanoparticle, polyimide, and interfacial regions, which are determined using a molecular modeling method that involves coarse-grained and reversemapping techniques. The micromechanics model includes an effective interface between the polyimide and nanoparticle with properties and dimensions that are determined using the results of molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown that the model can be used to predict the elastic properties of silica nanoparticle/polyimide composites for a large range of nanoparticle radii, 10 Å to 10,000 Å. For silica nanoparticle radii above 1,000 Å, the predicted properties are equal to those predicted using the standard Mori-Tanaka micromechanical approach, which does not incorporate the molecular structure.It is also shown that the specific silica nanoparticle/polyimide interface conditions have a significant effect on the composite mechanical properties for nanoparticle radii below 1,000 Å.

In this study, a technique is presented for developing constitutive models for polymer composite systems reinforced with single

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ABSTRACT:The effect of functionalization of carbon nanotubes on the thermal conductivity of nanocomposites has been studied using a multi-scale modeling approach. These results predict that grafting linear hydrocarbon chains to the surface of a single wall carbon nanotube with covalent chemical bonds should result in a significant increase in the thermal conductivity of these nanocomposites. This is due to the decrease in the interfacial thermal (Kapitza) resistance between the single wall carbon nanotube and the surrounding polymer matrix upon chemical functionalization. The nanocomposites studied here consist of single wall carbon nanotubes in a bulk poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) matrix. The nanotubes are functionalized by end-grafting linear hydrocarbon chains of varying length to the surface of the nanotube. The effect which this functionalization has on the interfacial thermal resistance is studied by molecular dynamics simulation. Interfacial thermal resistance values are calculated for a range of chemical grafting densities and with several chain lengths. These results are subsequently used in an analytical model to predict the resulting effect on the bulk thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite.

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