Hybrid nanocomposites with ultra-low filling content by nano-coating fragmentation

ABSTRACT

In the current study, a new technique for the manufacturing of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) with ultra-low filling content (<0.05 wt%) is presented. Specifically, this method has been validated through the production of polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites with Ag nanoparticles. The presented method first consisted in a metal nano-film deposition on PP pellet substrates by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) sputtering equipment. Subsequently, a percentage of the coated pellet was mixed to uncoated ones via an injection molding machine to produce the PNC in a single step. Different mixing percentages of coated PP pellet to the uncoated ones were studied. As a result, the fragmentation of the nano-coating of the particles occurs during mixing, due to the action of the shear forces, thus the nanoparticles are directly produced within the polymer matrix. The fabricated PNCs were evaluated with thermal, thermomechanical, and mechanical tests in order to assess property changes compared to neat PP. The preliminary visual analysis already highlights the presence of the Ag nano-filler through a chromatic change. The surface properties also undergo slight variations due to the presence of the filler, which was also confirmed by DSC and DMA analysis of the molded samples. Moreover, microscopic observations of nanocomposites showed the presence of distributed silver nanoparticles and thermographic analyses demonstrated a significant increase in the thermal diffusivity of the 0.05 wt% nanofilled sample compared to the unfilled one.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Polymer nanocomposites
• metal nano-particles
• nano-coating
• additives
• injection molding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Denise Bellisario

Denise Bellisario is associate professor at the Mercatorum University (Italy). She earned is M.S. in Engineering Mechanics in 2007 and her Ph.D. Industrial Production Engineering in 2010 from University of Rome ‘La Sapienza.’ Until 2015 she was Postdoctoral Fellows at the Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Tor Vergata of Rome (Italy). She acts as referee for some international journals. Her scientific activity is mainly focused on processes of metals and metal foams, as forming and machining, and on fabrication of polymers, polymer matrix composites, nanocomposite and smart materials. Moreover, she has had many collaborations on national and international projects focused on the functionalization of surfaces, on the application of smart composites and on the recycling of polymeric materials and composites. These researches resulted in the production of about 60 scientific papers published on proceedings of international journals and conferences.

Fabrizio Quadrini

Fabrizio Quadrini is associate professor since 2010 in Technology and Manufacturing Systems. He is member of the Doctorate Collegium in Industrial Engineering and of the Mechanical Engineering Degree Board. He teaches Non-Conventional Technologies, and Manufacturing Technologies. In his scientific careers he produced more than 200 publications on journals and conference proceedings. At present, 146 of these publications are reported on Scopus. He is scientific advisor for the Laboratory of Industrial Processes Innovation (LIPI) in the frame of the agreement with the regional incubator BIC of Colleferro, and the Advanced Materials Laboratory for Aerospace (AMALA) in the site of the Italian Space Agency. He was science and technology manager of the SMART project and GreenPack project, funded by the European Commission.

Loredana Santo

Loredana Santo is full professor of Manufacturing Technologies at University of Rome Tor Vergata. She was principal investigator of national and international projects such as the I-FOAM experiment on the International Space Station during the last flight of the Shuttle Endeavor (2011, Mission STS-134), Ribes-Foam2 experiment in the frame of the Russian Space mission BION M1 (2013), project “Materials in Open Space” (MinOS) and sample collaborator in the MISSE-9 and 10 Polymers and Composites Experiment (PCE) in collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center (2018-2019). She is responsible for many contracts with enterprises and author of more than 160 publications.

Nicola Montinaro

Nicola Montinaro is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in mechanical design awarded in 2015 in collaboration with the University of Cambridge with a thesis on the mechanical characterization of nanostructured materials using new numerical approaches. From 2015 he is a Post Doc at University of Palermo doing research on novel nondestructive evaluation techniques applied on composite structures, nanostructured materials and metal additive manufacturing parts. In 2019 he starts collaborating with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF-OaPA) to support the design, development and characterization of extra-thin filters for the ATHENA space mission selected by the European Space Agency (ESA). He is the author of 40 research articles, has an H-index of 9 and 283 citations (Source: Google Scholar April 2021). His main areas of expertise are: nondestructive analysis, mechanical and thermo-mechanical characterizations of materials, nanostructured materials, computational method for engineering. He is currently affiliated with the University of Genève (UNIGE), the University of Palermo (UNIPA) and the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF-OaPA).

Mario Fustaino

Mario Fustaino is a mechanical engineer with a master’s degree obtained at the University of Palermo. After graduating, he took the state exam for the qualification for enrollment in the register of engineers. For about a year he worked as a mechanical designer in an Italian multinational company specialized in technologies for processing wood, plastic, glass, stone, metal and composite materials and industrial components. Currently he is a PhD student at the University of Palermo; the research project deals with the evaluation of the dispersion level of nanoparticles within nanocomposite materials.

Antonio Pantano

Antonio Pantano is full professor at the Engineering Department of the University of Palermo (Italy). He earned is M.S. in Engineering Mechanics in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics in 2002 from Michigan State University. Until 2004 he was Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. At MIT he was in a research group working on CNTs, the CMI (Cambridge-MIT Institute) Project on Carbon Nanotube Enabled Materials. In 2004 he moved to the Department of Mechanics, University of Palermo, where he was professor “Rientro dei Cervelli,” a prestigious but non-tenure research and teaching position sponsored by the Italian government for promoting the coming back of outstanding scientist working abroad. From 2007 he is a Professor, first associate and later full, at the Engineering Department of the University of Palermo. He does teach several courses on numerical simulation in mechanical engineering and mechanical design at both at undergraduate and graduate level. His current research interests include: computational mechanics, mechanical design, NDE, composites, biomimetic, compliant mechanisms, wind turbines.