(649c) Ionic Liquid Dispersed Nanocomposites

Nanocomposites offer exciting ways to modify polymers and conventional composites by providing a moldable, flowable polymer-like composite with advantageous properties taken from embedded particles with desirable properties over small length scales. Increases in modulus, fracture toughness, and heat and electrical conductivity can be obtained with carefully selected particle types, geometries, loading fractions, processing methodologies, and polymer curing method.  

Achieving effective macro-scale properties from these nanofillers requires good solvent chemistry and processing for nanoparticles dispersion, effective choice of nanoparticle material and geometry for the desired property improvements, and strong interfaces between the embedded particles and the polymer matrix.  Our recent work has demonstrated that well-chosen ionic liquids can simultaneously disperse nanoparticles within an epoxy matrix and initiate epoxy cure reaction.  This results in materials with potentially unique interphase properties resulting from interactions among the nanoparticle surface, ionic liquid, and epoxy resin. 

This study explores the structure and properties of nanocomposites made with this unique processing method. Experimentally and conceptually, various methods of measuring dispersion for differing particle geometries, understanding the relationship between nano-scale dispersion and macroscopic properties, the effect of a percolated nanofiller network, and stress transfer through particles of different structures and geometries are explored.