Influence of silica nanoparticles functionalized with poly(butyl acrylate-co -glycidyl methacrylate)-g -diaminodiphenyl sulfone on the mechanical and thermal properties of bismaleimide nanocomposites

Abstract

The silica nanoparticles functionalized with poly(butyl acrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate)-g-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (P(BA-co-GMA)-g-DDS)) were prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization and ring open reaction, and characterized by Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Subsequently, the influence of SiO2 content on the mechanical and thermal properties for the bismaleimide (BMI) resin nanocomposites modified with pristine SiO2 and SiO2-P(BA-co-GMA)-g-DDS) was investigated. It was found that SiO2-P(BA-co-GMA)-g-DDS) was more effective as a modifier than pristine SiO2. The most significant improvement of the impact strength (+108.7%) and flexural strength (+64.5%) was obtained with SiO2-P(BA-co-GMA)-g-DDS) at 0.5 wt% content. Moreover, the thermal properties of nanocomposites were distinctly improved with the addition of functionalized SiO2. The reasons for these changes were discussed in this article. POLYM. COMPOS., 34:2154–2159, 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers