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Structure and thermostability of PMMA in PMMA/silica nanocomposites: Effect of high‐energy ball milling and the amount of the nanofiller
Author(s) -
Pantaleón Ruben,
GonzálezBenito Javier
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.20946
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocomposite , thermogravimetric analysis , thermal stability , thermostability , ball mill , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , methyl methacrylate , nanoparticle , composite material , poly(methyl methacrylate) , chemical engineering , polymer , nanotechnology , polymerization , organic chemistry , engineering , enzyme , chemistry
In this work, the effect of the presence of silica nanoparticles in the structure, dynamics, and thermodegradation of poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, has been considered. A new method for preparing nanocomposites has been considered in which high‐energy ball milling, HEBM, was used to uniformly disperse nanoparticles within a polymeric matrix (PMMA). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, FTIR, was used to analyze the structure and dynamics of the PMMA to study the influence of the presence of silica nanoparticles and finally to discuss the thermal stability of these nanocomposites. Dynamic thermogravimetric analyses were performed to carry out the kinetics analysis about the thermostability of the modified PMMA, being the milling process and the amount of nanoparticles the variables taken into account. The milling process creates chain ends on the PMMA favoring its first step of thermal degradation. There is only an improvement in terms of thermal stability if the amount of silica nanoparticles within the PMMA exceeds a threshold higher than 2% by weight when the unfavorable effect of the milling process is compensated. POLYM. COMPOS., 31:1585–1592, 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers