An investigation into the improvement of adhesive strength of polyimides by incorporation of elastomeric nanoparticles

Abstract

Copoly(styrene–butyl acrylate–ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate) (St–BA–EGDMA) nanoparticles were prepared using miniemulsion polymerization technique. Then the dispersed nanoparticles in DMAc were added to in situ condensation polymerization media of pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and oxydianiline (ODA) and consequently, homogenous polyamic acid solution containing the nanoparticles was obtained. Novel polymer–polymer nanocomposites were prepared by casting of PMDA–ODA polyamic acid solution with various content of the above elastomeric nanoparticle (ENP) on a glass plate followed by thermal imidization. All samples were characterized after preparation by FT-IR spectroscopy, transition electron microscopy (TEM), thermal gravimetry analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). To investigate the adhesion strength of polyimides filled with (St–BA–EGDMA) nanoparticles, lap shear strength (LSS) test was examined on different metallic surfaces. Effect of nanoparticles content on the adhesion properties of this polymer was considerable for aluminum surface. Lap-shear strength and adhesive energy of the bonded samples were found to initially increase with the increase in ENP wt%, but decrease after a critical value. It was shown that by increasing the nanoparticles amount up to 25 wt%, the adhesion strength of polyimides increased due to the good wetability of surfaces. After that and by increasing the nanoparticles amount, the adhesion strength decreased according to the diminished strength between polyimide chains. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the fractured surfaces were taken to determine the failure mode. They showed that by increasing the nanoparticle content in the polyimide matrix, failure mode was converted from adhesion failure to cohesion one.