Glass transition and segmental dynamics in poly(dimethylsiloxane)/silica nanocomposites studied by various techniques

Abstract

We report new results on segmental dynamics and glass transition in a series of poly(dimethylsiloxane) networks filled with silica nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel techniques, obtained by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC), broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The nanocomposites are characterized by a fine dispersion of 10nm silica particles and hydrogen bonding polymer/filler interactions. The first three techniques indicate, in agreement with each other, that a fraction of polymer in an interfacial layer around the silica particles with a thickness of 2–3nm shows modified dynamics. The DSC data, in particular measurements of heat capacity jump at Tg, are analyzed in terms of immobilized polymer in the interfacial layer. The dielectric TSDC and DRS data are analyzed in terms of slower dynamics in the interfacial layer as compared to bulk dynamics. We employ a special version of TSDC, the so-called thermal sampling (TS) technique, and provide experimental evidence for a continuous distribution of glass transition temperatures (Tg) and molecular mobility of the polymer in the interfacial layer, which is consistent with the DRS data. Finally, DMA results show a moderate slowing down of segmental dynamics of the whole polymer matrix (increase of glass transition temperature by about 10K as compared to the pure matrix).