Influence of exfoliated graphite inclusion on the thermal, mechanical, dielectric and solvent transport characteristics of fluoroelastomer nanocomposites

摘要

Nanocomposites with multifunctional properties are of great interest as they meet the needs of the developing industrial and engineering fields. The present study focus on the development of multifunctional elastomeric nanocomposites with exfoliated graphite (EG) as the reinforcing content and the speciality material fluoroelastomer as the polymer matrix. Morphological analysis of the nanocomposites in terms of TEM, AFM and SEM were done to look at the polymer-filler interactions which in turn lead to the property enhancement. The dispersion of the EG in the nanoscale which resulted in the property enhancement is clear from the TEM images. Nanocomposites exhibited improved thermal stability and higher mechanical strength by the addition of 12 phr of EG nanofiller. Moreover the dielectric performance of the nanocomposites was also enhanced by the addition of conductive EG nanofiller and the nanocomposites showed higher dielectric constant value and AC conductivity with lower dielectric loss. In addition to this the solvent transport features of the nanocomposites were also analyzed to reveal the reinforcement effect of the nanofiller and the effective polymer-filler interactions.