Search results for " nanosilica"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Dispersions of nanosilica in biocompatible copolymers
2010
Dispersions of nanosilica in matrices of biocompatible copolymers were prepared by melt blending. Copolymers with variable molecular size at fixed hydrophilic/hydrophobic ratio and nanosilicas with different interfacial areas were studied. For comparison, a nanoclay was also investigated. The interfacial area played a relevant role in conferring peculiar properties on the nanohybrids. Amazingly, the macromolecule adsorbed on the nanosilica surface maintains some crystallinity which was quantitatively evaluated. In contrast, all the macromolecule anchored to the nanoclay surface is amorphous. The change of the crystalline state was reflected in the dielectric and the electrical conductivity …
IMPROVED STABILITY OF GRAPHENE OXIDE-SILICA NANOHYBRIDS AND RELATED POLYMER-BASED NANOCOMPOSITES
2014
Although its promising properties make the graphene oxide (GO) very interesting as filler for polymer matrices, some problems related to its thermal stability in the region which ranges from 80 to 200 °C, are crucial for the possibility to melt process GO together with practically all the polymers [1,2]. Moreover, above 100 °C GO lamellae were found to become stacked. In this work, two different ways to preserve the GO structure and ensure its dispersion within different polymer matrices have been investigated and schematized in Fig. 1. Exfoliation plays a key-role in the achievement of good mechanical properties since it preserves the GO from both stacking phenomena. The capability of sili…
Diffusion and outgassing of O2 in amorphous SiO2 silica nanoparticles with specific surface properties
2014
Silica nanoparticles with hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface and average diameter of 12 and 40 nm are investigated to study the surface group influence on the diffusion process of molecular oxygen. The O2 diffusion kinetics and molecular solubility are determined by Raman/Photoluminescence measurements. Thermal treatments up to 127°C in controlled atmosphere show that the surface chemistry of nanoparticles is not changed, the equilibrium emission of O2 depends on nanoparticles surface properties, whereas the dynamics of diffusion is surface independent suggesting that surface groups could only affect overall content or detectability of interstitial molecules. The post loading outgassing in…
O2 trapping in silica nano-structures with high specific surfaces
2014
We report an experimental investigation regarding the entrapping of O2 molecules inside various silica nano– structured systems having specific surfaces from 50 to 1000 m2/g. By recording Raman spectra and Near Infrared O2 emission we studied the O2 content per mass unit. Our data show that the internal voids of these nanostructured systems can trap O2 molecules diffusing from the surrounding air or from a pure O2 atmosphere, whereas the concentration of O2 that can be trapped in the silica near–surface layer is at least one order of magnitude lower. This low ability is consistently observed in non–porous and porous silica nanoparticles and in mesoporous silica systems. Furthermore, we obse…
Graphene oxide and Fumed silica graphene oxide nanocomposites modification by thermal treatments
2014
In the present study we investigate post synthesis thermal treatments up to 400 °C of graphene oxide (GrO) prepared from commercial graphite and of GrO–silica nanocomposites prepared by a solution of commercial Fumed silica nanoparticles (average diameter 7 nm or 40 nm) and the GrO. The thermal treatments were carried out in air, vacuum or He atmosphere to highlight tunable changes. Two GrO batches with small differences in the D (~1350 cm–1) and G (~1580 cm–1) Raman bands have been employed to evaluate effects depending on preparation. Thermal effects have been monitored through the Raman spectroscopy focusing on D, G and 2D (2500–3500 cm–1) bands spectral ranges. The experiments evidenced…
Dependence of O2 diffusion dynamics on pressure and temperature in silica nanoparticles
2013
An experimental study of the molecular O2 diffusion process in high purity non-porous silica nanoparticles having 50 m2/g BET specific surface and 20 nm average radius was carried out in the temperature range from 127 to 177 °C at O2 pressure in the range from 0.2 to 66 bar. The study was performed by measuring the volume average interstitial O2 concentration by a Raman and photoluminescence technique using a 1,064 nm excitation laser to detect the singlet to triplet emission at 1,272 nm of the molecular oxygen in silica. A dependence of the diffusion kinetics on the O2 absolute pressure, in addition to temperature dependence, was found. The kinetics can be fit by the solution of Fick’s dif…
Dielectric spectroscopy analysis of EVA-silicate nanocomposite insulating materials
2005
Nanocomposite materials show promising results for applications as electrical insulation. Among several materials presently under investigation, previous works indicate that polypropylene and ethylene-vinilacetate filled by nanosilicates present lower content of space charge and higher electric strength. However, efforts are needed to explain nanocomposite behaviour and characterize their electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. In this paper, the results of broad-band dielectric spectroscopy performed on ethylene-vinylacetate copolymer filled by layered micro and nanosized silicates are reported. The nanofillers consist of montmorillonite and fluorohectorite, that is, natural and syn…