Evolution of dispersion in the melt compounding of a model polymer nanocomposite system: A multi-scale study

Hugo Gaspar, Raquel Santos, Paulo Teixeira, Loic Hilliou, Michael P. Weir, Chris P. Duif, Wim G. Bouwman, Steven R. Parnell, Stephen M. King, More Authors

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
25 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We investigate the morphological development of polystyrene (PS)-C 60 nanocomposites along the length of a prototype co-rotating twin-screw extruder with sampling capabilities. The effects of C 60 concentration and output on the morphological evolution along the extruder are studied employing a suite of characterization techniques covering a wide range of length-scales, thereby shedding new light on the dispersion mechanism in this model system. We show that the relatively new spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering (SESANS) technique is well suited to probe both the distribution and the dispersion of C 60 . SESANS complements optical microscopy (OM) data as it covers sampling areas several orders of magnitude larger than OM. The multi-scale morphological information conveyed by OM, SESANS, SANS and rheological data shows that for larger outputs, C 60 agglomerates are eroded as they travel along the extruder, resulting in C 60 dispersion and distribution at both molecular and micrometric levels. The picture is more complex when smaller feed rates are used, as the evolution of C 60 dispersion depends on the C 60 loading. For larger C 60 contents, agglomeration develops along the extruder, whereas dispersion is improved for smaller C 60 contents. Overall, it is concluded that an over-high feed rate in extrusion does not necessarily result in a bigger size of the nanoparticle agglomerates because of the complex interplay between stresses and residence time.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)109-118
JournalPolymer Testing
Volume76
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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