Polymer Nanocomposite Materials

Ball milling is widely used in metallurgy and mineral processing industry [96]. The principle of ball milling is to grind and mix powders in a closed space by using the huge shear force and compression force produced by hard ball collision. In the synthesis of PNCs, this method can disperse CNTs [97], graphene nanoparticles [98–101], silica nanoparticles [102], and BNs [103, 104] into thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. The high shear force produced by ball milling can peel off some two-dimensional nanostructures, such as graphene, MoS 2, and BNs, but may not separate the interlayer structure connected by ionic bonding [105–110]. In addition, ball milling is not only suitable for solvent-free conditions but also solvent-free conditions, so nanofillers can be directly dispersed in some solid thermoplastic matrix, such as polyethylene (PE) [101, 111], polyphenylene sulfide [104, 112], and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) [102].

Double-screw extrusion disperses nanofillers in thermoplastic matrix by huge shear force generated by high speed rotation of double-screw at high temperature [113, 114]. This method has been widely used in industry due to the advantages of solvent-free and environment-friendly technology. With this method, the fillers can be dispersed into the polymer in a high content way to achieve the well-controlled performance, and applied to different sizes of nanoparticles, such as graphene sheets [115], CNTs [116], and silicon dioxide [117]. This method needs higher temperature, which is helpful to reduce the viscosity of polymer and load more nanofillers, but also has the risk of decomposing polymers and nanofillers. The reason is owing to the existence of low thermal stability functional groups in the materials. When the temperature is too high, the fracture will occur, resulting in the deterioration of the performance of PNCs [118]. Moreover, the gap between the screws is too large to keep some aggregates of nanofillers evenly, which will not achieve the uniform monodispersing of nanofillers. So, it is necessary to combine other technologies to further improve the performance [119, 120].

In addition to the aforementioned methods of dispersing prepared nanofillers into polymers, another important synthesis strategy is in situ synthesis, which directly generates nanoparticles in polymers through molecular precursors [121]. This method can be divided into chemical and physical in situ synthesis [122]. Chemical in situ synthesis is used to synthesize nanoscale fillers by chemical reaction, such as the hydrothermal method and sol–gel method [123, 124]. The physical in situ synthesis is transforming the precursor of gas phase into inorganic nanoparticles through plasma action, and then condensing the organic compounds on the surface of inorganic particles to cover the polymer shell to form PNCs [125].

In this chapter, the basic principles, properties, and synthesis methods of PNCs are clearly described. The composite material has unique structure and performance, and has a wide range of applications in many fields. The particle size, orientation, shape, dispersion, and volume dispersion of nanofillers affect the properties of PNCs. Most of the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of PNCs depend on the interface interaction between the filler and the matrix. Therefore, the uniform dispersion of nanofillers is the most important consideration in the synthesis of PNCs. PNCs have recently become part of modern technology, but these areas are still in the early stage of development. With more and more scientists and engineers contributing to the understanding of PNCs, these functional materials will be applied in more and more fields.

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