Search

US-12623193-B2 - High shear thin film machine for dispersion and simultaneous orientation-distribution of nanoparticles within polymer matrix

US12623193B2US 12623193 B2US12623193 B2US 12623193B2US-12623193-B2

Abstract

An improved a device and method for dispersion and simultaneous orientation of nanoparticles within a matrix is provided. A mixer having a shaft and a stator is provided. The shaft may have a rupture region and erosion region. Further, an orienter having an angled stationary plate and a moving plate are provided. The nanoparticles and the matrix are fed into the mixer. A rotational force is applied to the shaft to produce shearing forces. The shearing forces disperse and exfoliate the nanoparticles within the matrix. The dispersed mixture is outputted onto the moving plate. The moving plate is forced across the angled stationary plate to produce fully developed laminar shear flow. The fully developed laminar shear flow or the two-dimensional extensional drag flow orients the dispersed nanoparticles-matrix mixture.

Inventors

  • Ilchgerel Dash
  • Robb M. Winter

Assignees

  • SOUTH DAKOTA BOARD OF REGENTS

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20211018

Claims (13)

  1. 1 . A device to orient particles within a matrix, the device comprising: a moving plate adapted to receive a mixture of the particles and the matrix, the moving plate having an upper surface and an opposite bottom surface; a stationary plate comprising: an orientation section having a leading edge and a trailing edge; and a short angled section extending from the leading edge of the orientation section; a gap between the upper surface of the moving plate and the leading edge of the orientation section; wherein the upper surface of the moving plate moves at an angle from the leading edge of the orientation section to the trailing edge of the orientation section, wherein the angle is greater than zero degrees relative to horizontal; and wherein the mixture disposed on the upper surface of the moving plate is forced through the gap to orient the particles within the matrix.
  2. 2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the angle is about three degrees relative to horizontal.
  3. 3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the moving plate moves horizontally.
  4. 4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the orientation section is angled relative to the moving plate.
  5. 5 . A high shear thin film machine comprising: the device of claim 1 ; and a mixer comprising: a housing having a center axis, an outer surface, and an inner surface; and an inlet in fluid connection with the housing configured to receive the mixture of the particles and the matrix and an outlet in communication with the moving plate.
  6. 6 . The high shear thin film machine of claim 5 , wherein the mixer further comprises: one or more cooling channels disposed within the housing between the outer surface and the inner surface.
  7. 7 . A device to orient particles within a matrix, the device comprising: a moving plate adapted to receive a mixture of the particles and the matrix, the moving plate having an upper surface and an opposite bottom surface; a stationary plate comprising: an orientation section having a leading edge and a trailing edge; and a short angled section extending from the leading edge of the orientation section; a gap between the upper surface of the moving plate and the leading edge of the orientation section; wherein the distance between the moving plate and the orientation section decreases as the moving plate moves past the orientation section.
  8. 8 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the upper surface of the moving plate moves at an angle from the leading edge of the orientation section to the trailing edge of the orientation section.
  9. 9 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the mixture disposed on the upper surface of the moving plate is forced through the gap to orient the particles within the matrix.
  10. 10 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the orientation section is angled relative to the moving plate.
  11. 11 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the particles comprise nanoparticles.
  12. 12 . A high shear thin film machine comprising: the device of claim 7 ; and a mixer comprising a housing and one or more cooling channels within the housing between an outer surface and an inner surface.
  13. 13 . The high shear thin film machine of claim 12 , wherein the mixer further comprises: threading on a surface of the one or more cooling channels to increase surface area of the surface of the one or more cooling channels for dissipating heat.

Description

PRIORITY STATEMENT This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/805,319, filed on Feb. 28, 2020, titled High Shear Thin Film Machine For Dispersion and Simultaneous Orientation-Distribution Of Nanoparticles Within Polymer Matrix, which is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/561,503 now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,675,598, filed on Sep. 25, 2017, titled High Shear Thin Film Machine For Dispersion and Simultaneous Orientation-Distribution Of Nanoparticles Within Polymer Matrix, which is a nation phase of and claims priority to PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US16/23820, filed on Mar. 23, 2016, titled High Shear Thin Film Machine For Dispersion and Simultaneous Orientation-Distribution Of Nanoparticles Within Polymer Matrix, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/137,290, filed on Mar. 24, 2015 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/251,587, filed Nov. 5, 2015, both titled High Shear Thin Film Machine For Dispersion and Simultaneous Orientation-Distribution Of Nanoparticles Within Polymer Matrix all of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure relates generally to improved nanocomposites. More particularly, but not exclusively, the disclosure relates to the simultaneous dispersion and orientation of nanoparticles within a polymer matrix during fabrication of polymer nanocomposites. BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE The use of composite materials is commonplace in today's manufacturing industry. Composite materials advantageously display certain desired physical and/or chemical properties different from the constituent materials. Recent advances in materials science have included development of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs). In the broadest sense, PNCs are comprised of a polymer matrix reinforced with nanoparticles having dimensions less than one hundred nanometers, but often in the range of one to fifty nanometers. PNCs differ from conventional composite materials due to, among other features, a high surface area to volume ratio between the polymer and the nanoparticles. For example, the total surface area in a unit volume increases 1,000,000 times when the particle size is decreased from one millimeter to one nanometer. As a result, a relatively small amount of nanoscale reinforcement can have an observable effect on the macroscale properties of the composite. In other words, the nanocomposite (NC) properties are drastically increased at low concentrations of nanoparticles (NPs), generally 0.5-5.0 percentage by weight (wt %). For example, Young's modulus and yield strength are doubled at 1 wt % NPs in carbon nanotube/epoxy NCs compared to neat epoxy. One of the most important properties affecting NCs characteristics is maximal interfacial stress transfer between the polymer matrix and the NP surface. This characteristic is strongly dependent on the degree of dispersion and orientation of the NPs in the polymer matrix. Incorporation of high aspect ratio nanoparticles (HARNPs), or nanoparticles with an aspect ratio greater than 100, into a polymer matrix can significantly increase mechanical properties such as elastic modulus and tensile strength. Additional enhanced properties may include gas permeability, fire retardancy, transparency, and electrical and thermal conductivity, magnetism, shape recovery, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, permeation resistance, self-healing, anti-lighting, conductance, photoluminescence and electroluminescence. For example, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) improve the electrical and thermal conductivity of the composite. Due to such extraordinary and desirable improvement in the properties of such composites, PNCs are used in demanding applications such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, computer technologies, and the like. When properly dispersed, HARNPs (e.g., nanometer-thin platelets, such as clays to and graphene sheets, or nanometer-diameter cylinders, such as CNTs) interact with relatively more of a polymer chain than lower aspect ratio NPs in a unit volume of NCs. By contrast, low aspect ratio NPs (e.g., nanorods, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS), silica spheres) have fewer surface interactions to break, resulting in poorer performing systems. Therefore, higher energy is required to break HARNP-PNCs systems than low aspect ratio NP-PNCs systems. The nanosphere represents a low aspect ratio NP while the nanoplatelet is a high aspect ratio NP. Expanded polymer chains interacts with the HARNPs with much fewer larger polymer chains than the low aspect ratio NPs. Agglomeration of HARNPs reduces the effective aspect ratio of the nanoparticles and available surface for interaction. For example, the aspect ratio of an agglomeration containing 100 nanoplatelets is 1 while for a single nanoplatelet is 100. Further, the total surface area of the individual platelet system may be increased by 34 times over that of the agglomerat