Abstract
Current studies investigating properties of nanoparticle-reinforced polymers have shown that nanocomposites often exhibit improved properties compared to neat polymers. However, over two decades of research, using both experimental studies and modeling analyses, has not fully elucidated the mechanistic underpinnings behind these enhancements. Moreover, few studies have focused on developing an understanding among two or more polymer properties affected by incorporation of nanomaterials. In our study, we investigated the elastic and thermal properties of poly(acrylamide) hydrogels containing silica nanoparticles. Both nanoparticle concentration and size affected hydrogel properties, with similar trends in enhancements observed for elastic modulus and thermal diffusivity. We also observed significantly lower swellability for hydrogel nanocomposites relative to neat hydrogels, consistent with previous work suggesting that nanoparticles can mediate pseudo crosslinking within polymer networks. Collectively, these results indicate the ability to develop next-generation composite materials with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties by increasing the average crosslinking density using nanoparticles.
Highlights
It is well established that the addition of nanoscopic filler particles to polymer systems can have a large impact on their properties, even for very low weight fractions of nanoparticles [1,2,3]
Experimental investigations of the nanocomposite mechanical properties using rotational rheometry revealed that the elastic modulus (G’) of pAAm-silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) composites relative to the neat polymer was strongly dependent on the nanoparticle concentration (Fig 1A and S2 Fig)
We explored the effects of nanoparticle size on the elastic modulus of pAAmSiNP composites using 4, 20, and 100 nm-sized SiNPs
Summary
It is well established that the addition of nanoscopic filler particles to polymer systems can have a large impact on their properties, even for very low weight fractions of nanoparticles [1,2,3]. As reviewed by Tjong (2006), addition of various nanofillers including carbon nanotubes, organoclays, and inorganic nanoparticles can significantly improve the mechanical performances of both amorphous and semicrystalline polymer composites [2]. Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Hydrogel Nanocomposites extend to thermal and electrical properties[4,5,6,7,8,9] as well as chemical resistance [10, 11]. Literature that reviews the properties of hydrogel nanocomposites are especially relevant to the scope this paper as defined by the choice of our model polymer system
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