Abstract
This study investigates the effects of commercial nanoparticles on thermal and mechanical performance of rigid polyurethane foams. Two different types of nanoparticles are considered as fillers, spherical titania and rod-shaped halloysite clay nanotubes. The aim of this study was to produce rigid polyurethane foams modified with titania nanocrystals and nanohalloysite in order to obtain polyurethanes with improved properties. The laboratory scale-up will be suitable for the production in many branches of industry, such as construction and automotive production. In particular, these foams, added with commercial nanoparticles, characterized by better thermal and mechanical properties, are mainly used in construction for thermal insulation of buildings. The fillers were dispersed in the components, bringing rates up to 10%. In these investigations, the improvement of the thermal properties occurs by adding nanoparticles in the range 4–8% of titania and halloysite. The mechanical properties instead have been observed an improvement starting from 6% of nanoparticles addition. All data are in agreement with scanning electron microscope observations that shown a decrease in the average cell size and an increase in the cell density by adding nanoparticles in foams.
Highlights
The foams optimized with nanoparticles exhibit increased strength and damping properties over traditional foams.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] Foams added with nanoparticles are defined as composites with a polymer matrix and fillers that are less than 100 nm in at least one dimension
The use of nanoparticles may lead to a sensible variation of foam morphology, with an enhancement of thermal insulating properties, a reduction of the thermal aging phenomena and an enhancement of the mechanical properties.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
The nanoreinforced PU foams manufactured with two different types of nanoparticles, TiO2 (Aeroxide P25) and Halloysite clay nanotubes (HNTs), have been dispersed into the PU matrix through sonication technique
Summary
The foams optimized with nanoparticles exhibit increased strength and damping properties over traditional foams.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] Foams added with nanoparticles are defined as composites with a polymer matrix and fillers that are less than 100 nm in at least one dimension. The use of nanoparticles may lead to a sensible variation of foam morphology, with an enhancement of thermal insulating properties, a reduction of the thermal aging phenomena and an enhancement of the mechanical properties.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10].
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