Testing the Dispersion of Nanoparticles in a Nanocomposite with an Ultra-Low Fill Content Using a Novel Non-Destructive Evaluation Technique
A non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique capable of testing the dispersion of nanoparticles in a nanocomposite would be of great use to the industry to check the quality of the products made and to ensure compliance with their specifications. Very few NDE techniques found in the literature can evaluate the level of dispersion of the nanoparticles in the whole nanocomposite. Here, a recently developed NDE technique based on pulsed phase thermography (PPT) in transmission mode was used to assess the particle dispersion in ultra-low, less than 0.05 wt%, Ag enriched polymeric based nanocomposite manufactured with an innovative nano-coating fragmentation technique. The phasegrams obtained wi…
Hybrid nanocomposites with ultra-low filling content by nano-coating fragmentation
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…