Insulating polymer nanocomposites for high thermal conduction and fire retarding applications.

Gupta, Ranjeetkumar; Huo, Dehong; Pancholi, Mehul; Njuguna, James; Pancholi, Ketan

Abstract

The possibility of combining the flexibility and light - weight of polymers with the highest insulation of ceramics, drives the field of nanocomposites for potential commercial application. The inclusion of nano-sized insulating particles in the polymer matrix, and orienting the fillers along the direction of heat flow results in modifying the induced interfaces for effective phonon propagation. Such flexible polymer nanocomposites (PNC) offer easy workability and refined insulating effect with high thermal conductivity and fire-retardancy. Hence, opening a wider arena of applications with the advantage of their light-weight. The engineering of the interfaces, is the key for dictating the desired properties at the macro-scale. Consequently, silane functionalisation of nanoparticles with designed dispersion technique was tried for achieving this purpose. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were done to characterize the properties and structure of the synthesised nanocomposite. This paper reports that surface modification of the nanoparticles can effectively solve the dispersion problem and reduces the electric field charge concentration at the interface. Synthesising PNC with selective nanoparticle loading percentage can yield a lmost 6-12% increase in the thermal capacity and fire retardability of the base polymer. Presenting an effective way of resulting in a commercially promising PNC suitable for various defence applications of radome technology, energy storage (e.g. batteries), structural bodies and cables in general.

Citation

GUPTA, R., HUO, D., PANCHOLI, M., NJUGUNA, J. and PANCHOLI, K. 2017. Insulating polymer nanocomposites for high thermal conduction and fire retarding applications. Presented at the 3rd Defence and security doctoral symposium, 14-15 November 2017, Swindon, UK [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.17862/cranfield.rd.5675281.v1

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 3rd Defence and security doctoral symposium
• Start Date: Nov 14, 2017
• End Date: Nov 15, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2018
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17862/cranfield.rd.5674951.v1
• Keywords: Nanocomposite; Aluminium oxide; Barium titanate; Thermal conductivity; Dielectric; Piezoelectric; Fire retardant
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2647
• Contract Date: Jan 8, 2018