. . . . . . . . . .    ANM 2010     3rd International Conference on Advanced Nano Materials     12-15 September 2010 - Agadir, Morocco Back    Abstract ANMM161 Thermal & Mechanical properties of SiC and SiO2 coated thermoplastic microsphere nanocomposites  Vijaya K. Rangari 1, Tiffianni, Watson 1, Wanda Jones 2, Brian K. Simpson 1 and Shaik Jeelani 2 1 Material Science and Engineering, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088 2 School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-5201 . A Sonochemical technique has been developed to coat SiC and SiO2 nanoparticles on expandable thermoplastic microspheres (acrylonitrile and methylacrylonitrile polymer, Expanel). These nanoparticles coated polymeric microspheres were further fabricated in to a foam panel using a compression molding technique (MTP-14 programmable compression molding). The test coupons were precisely cut from the foam panel and characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), quasi-static compression tests, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), The TGA results shows no significant differences in the first and second step weight losses. While the third step degradation of 1wt% SiC and 1wt% SiO2 nanocomposite samples shows 16ºC and 34ºC respectively increase as compared to the neat foam sample. The compressive stress of the 1wt% SiC and 1wt% SiO2 nanocomposites shows ~ 86% and 18% respectively increase as compared to the neat foam sample. SEM results shows that all the microspheres expanded uniformly and typical sizes measured are ~40-100µm for neat and 60-120µm for nanocomposite foam. . © nanoAC . . . . . . . . . .

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