Effect of Mixing Sequence of Polymer and Nanofillers on Thermo Mechanical as well as Morphological Property of the Nanocomposites

Blends of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and thermo tropic liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) and blend of PBT, LCP and nanosilica have been prepared by melt mixing technique. Polymer composites made by engineering thermoplastic PBT and reinforcing polymer LCP has been extruded in presence of nanosilica in different mixing sequence. Here the mixing sequence of PBT, LCP and nanosilica has been picked out so as to study the different changes that can be observed in the characteristics in each of the system. The resultant mixtures are then compression moulded in high temperature range. Microstructures of the blends have been studied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). Thermal properties and dynamic behaviour of the composites have been analyzed by Thermo gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analyser (DMTA), respectively. From the TGA analysis it is evident that PNL has superior thermal stability than the other nanocomposites. FESEM analysis revealed that the nanosilica prefers the low viscous LCP phase than the high viscous PBT. PNL has the highest tensile modulus among all the nano composites due to migration of nanosilica from high viscous PBT to low viscous LCP phase. There is a remarkable enhancement in storage modulus value is observed in case of PNL system than the other nano composites.