Effect of extrusion and compression moulding on the thermal properties of nylon-6/silica aerogel composites. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Krishnaswamy, Suryanarayanan; Tinsley, Lawrence; Marchante, Veronica; Addepalli, Sri; Huang, Zhaorong; Abhyankar, Hrushikesh
• Is Part Of: Journal of thermoplastic composite materials. Volume 31:Number 7(2018:Jul.)
• Page Start: 992
• Page End: 1009
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: Nylon -- aerogel -- extrusion -- thermal conductivity -- composites; Thermoplastic composites -- Periodicals; 668.423
• DOI: 10.1177/0892705717729198
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-7057

Abstract

The article presents the effect of a lower extrusion speed and compression moulding processes on the thermal properties of polyamide 6 (PA-6)/aerogel composite. Scanning electron and optical microscope images showed that although most of the aerogel was destroyed during extrusion at 65 r/min, extrusion at 5 r/min showed a better retention of the aerogel structure. However, when subjected to moulding in a compression press, both composites extruded at different speeds suffered significant damage. Nevertheless, the extruded samples did show a lower thermal conductivity compared to the virgin polymer. Further, it was observed that the sample extruded at 5 r/min had a lower damage coefficient value with an overall loss of around 33% to the aerogel structure when compared to the material extruded at 65 r/min, which endured a structural loss of 41% to the aerogel in it.