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

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 SiO 2 content on the mechanical and thermal properties for the bismaleimide (BMI) resin nanocomposites modified with pristine SiO 2 and SiO 2 ‐P(BA‐ co ‐GMA)‐ g ‐DDS) was investigated. It was found that SiO 2 ‐P(BA‐ co ‐GMA)‐ g ‐DDS) was more effective as a modifier than pristine SiO 2 . The most significant improvement of the impact strength (+108.7%) and flexural strength (+64.5%) was obtained with SiO 2 ‐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 SiO 2 . The reasons for these changes were discussed in this article. POLYM. COMPOS., 34:2154–2159, 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers