Enhancement of thermal and mechanical properties of PMMA composites by incorporating mesoporous micro-silica and GO

Abstract

The application of polymer-based composite materials is on the rise due to their enhanced thermal and mechanical properties compared to polymers themselves. For the first time in this study, the combination of graphene oxide (GO) and mesoporous micro-silica particles (with varying pore sizes) was used as fillers into PMMA matrices via in-situ bulk polymerization with ultrasonication. Two types of mesoporous silica were used at a fixed amount of 3 wt% with varying GO composition from 0.1 wt% to 1.2% to investigate the synergistic effect of GO and silica and increment of pore size of silica filler on the thermomechanical properties of the composites. The glass transition temperature Tg, thermal stability (the temperature at 10% and 60% weight loss) Td10 and Td60 of the same composite were increased by 21.5 °C, 46.5 °C, and 32.3 °C, respectively, compared to that of neat PMMA. Its tensile strength was increased remarkably by 329% compared with the PMMA. This work offers the possibility of further enhancement of thermal and mechanical properties of polymer-based composites by incorporating more than one filler with diverse properties.