title: Improved thermal conductivity and flame retardancy in polystyrene/poly(vinylidene fluoride) blends by controlling selective localization and surface modification of SiC nanoparticles.
abstract: The effect of selective localization of silicon carbide (SiC) and polystyrene (PS)-coated SiC (p-SiC) nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity and flame retardancy of immiscible PS/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) blends has been systematically studied. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that SiC and p-SiC nanoparticles have different selective localizations in the PS/PVDF blends. The melting and crystallization behaviors of the PVDF component investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry are consistent with the SEM results. To reduce the volume fraction of fillers in the composites, a cocontinuous structure of PS/PVDF has also been built up. The cocontinuity window for PS/PVDF blends is ∼30-70 vol % according to the selective solvent dissolution technique. The selective localization of SiC in the PVDF phase of the PS/PVDF 70/30 blends produces a slightly higher thermal conductivity than that of p-SiC in the PS phase of the PS/PVDF 30/70 blends. However, the composites with selective localization of p-SiC exhibit the best combined properties of thermal conductivity and flame retardancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jian-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jun-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.forename: Guo-Hua
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Zhi-Min
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Dang