Permeability, Viscoelasticity, and Flammability Performances and Their Relationship to Polymer Nanocomposites

Abstract

Despite abundant studies on gas barrier, viscoelastic, and flammability properties of polymer nanocomposites, comprehensive understandings of these performances and their relationships are still lacking. We herein attempt to gain deep insights into the performances by creating several polymer nanocomposites by incorporating three types of nanoparticles, nanoclay (Clay), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and reduced graphene nanoplates (RGO), into polypropylene (PP). The oxygen permeability, viscoelasticity, and flammability measurements demonstrate that RGO can lead to much more reduction in the gas permeability (by ∼73%) and flammability (peak heat release rate (PHRR) reduction by ∼78%), as well as a higher storage modulus and melt viscosity of polymer matrix relative to clay and CNTs at the same loading (1.0 wt %) due to its higher aspect ratio. Clay performs better than CNTs in terms of gas barrier property due to its lamellar structure while behaves worse than CNTs in terms of increasing the melt viscosity and reducing flammability of polymers. Most important, there is a nearly line correlation among these properties for all polymer nanocomposites despite some deviations.

A comprehensive study on morphological and rheological behavior of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene‐2,6‐naphthalene) nanocomposite blends in presence of graphene

“…The plasticizing effect of the nanographene leads to a reduction of relaxation time, further viscous motions, and declining elastic modulus [36,40,41] as is represented well in the modulus studied earlier.…”

“…As discussed earlier, shifting of H (s) to the lower level could be related to dispersion of filler and also to the lower extent of trans-reactions in the blends nanocomposites via the presence of graphene [5,40]. The plasticizing effect of the nanographene leads to a reduction of relaxation time, further viscous motions, and declining elastic modulus [36,40,41] as is represented well in the modulus studied earlier.…”

Oxygen Permeability Coefficient of High Density Polyethylene/Cu Nanofibers Nanocomposites below Percolation

“…It was also found that barrier to gas properties of the polymer composites can be enhanced (i.e. the values of the permeability to gas coefficient reduce as percentage of fiber contents increases) as documented in the literature [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] . One important key factor that enhances mechanical properties of the polymer is the aspect ratio of the fillers (i.e.…”

Melt rheological behavior of PMMA nanocomposites reinforced with modified nanoclay

“…Chopra et al 26 stated that 14% maleic anhydride in styrene-co-maleic anhydride provided higher miscibility over other compositions. Song et al 27 pointed out that graphene-based nanocomposite displayed higher storage modulus and complex viscosity as compared to nanoclay and CNT's. Ray and co-workers 28 reported that PLA/C18 MMT clay nanocomposites exhibited increased material properties in both solid state and melt state as compared to neat polymer.…”