Structure and Thermostability of PMMA in PMMA/Silica Nanocomposites: Effect of High-Energy Ball Milling and the Amount of the Nanofiller Articles uri icon

publication date

  • September 2010

start page

  • 1585

end page

  • 1592

issue

  • 9

volume

  • 31

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0272-8397

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1548-0569

abstract

  • 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.