Mechanical enhancement of zirconia reinforced polyimine nanocomposites

Abstract

Polymeric nanocomposites have demonstrated superior performance in recent decades, combining the advantages of polymer and nanoparticle fillers. However, nanocomposites of polyimine, a neoteric thermoset material, have been rarely investigated. Herein, a series of polyimine nanocomposites reinforced by zirconia (ZrO 2 ) have been fabricated by heat-pressing under mild conditions. The resultant polyimine nanocomposites show significant enhancements on multiple mechanical properties including tensile strength, toughness, bending strength, and impact strength, whereas the optimal amount of ZrO 2 particles for the best performance of a specific property varies. Interestingly, the tensile strength and toughness of the polyimine nanocomposites can be simultaneously increased by 40% and 85%, indicating that the nanocomposites exhibit excellent integration of tensile strength and toughness analogous to natural materials. Hence, a facile and cost-effective approach to enhance mechanical properties of polyimine has been realized for more applications.

The Side‐Chain Liquid Crystalline Epoxy Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles for the Thermal and Mechanical Enhancement of Epoxy Nanocomposites

“…As shown in Figure d, the fracture surface of the Al 2 O 3 /epoxy nanocomposites is dominated by crack deflection. This is due to the mechanical interaction between the crack front and the rigid particles, which causes the crack path to be disturbed and in‐plane deflection occur . The interfacial adhesion between particles and matrix plays a key role.…”

Mechanical enhancement of amine‐functionalized TiO2 reinforced polyimine composites

“…In this work, the effect of TiO 2 MS/amTiO 2 MS on the fatigue properties of polyimine‐TiO 2 ‐3, polyimine‐amTiO 2 ‐3, and polyimine matrix was evaluated by performing hysteresis measurements during 10 deformation cycles (as shown in Figure ). All of the three samples showed higher hysteresis loss in the first cycle and a drastic decrease of stress in the second cycle because most of the entanglements and physical interactions presented in the polyimine and composites, including hydrogen bonding between the TiO 2 MS and polyimine network as well as covalent and hydrogen bonding between the amTiO 2 MS and polyimine chain, had been broken …”

“…All of the three samples showed higher hysteresis loss in the first cycle and a drastic decrease of stress in the second cycle because most of the entanglements and physical interactions presented in the polyimine and composites, including hydrogen bonding between the TiO 2 MS and polyimine network as well as covalent and hydrogen bonding between the amTiO 2 MS and polyimine chain, had been broken. 68 To verify the self-healing capability of the samples, the fractured samples from tensile test were immersed in anhydrous ethanol for 15 min, then piece together on a flat surface. After 3 h, the fractured samples rejoined.…”

“…Zhang et al prepared ZrO 2 and CaCO 3 reinforced polyimine composites both of which enhanced the mechanical properties of polyimine matrix. 68 Although the milling-transforming process can partially attenuate the uneven distribution of the inorganic particles in the polyimine matrices, the aggregates smaller than the size of the polyimine particles remain in the composites as defects. Therefore, a method to achieve even distribution of the enhancing fillers in the thermoset polyimine matrix is needed.…”

In situ mechanical reinforcement of polyimine vitrimer via bioinspired crosslink mineralization

“…Since then the PI network materials were applied as the self‐healing matrix of various functional composites 29 . Works also have been conducted to enhance the mechanical properties of PI materials 32,35,36 . Nanoparticle filling has been proved to be an effective strategy to reinforce PI composites.…”