Polymer composites having large content of nanofiller: A case study involving epoxy

The situation where the polymer nanocomposite contains a large amount of organic filler was studied. An epoxy nanocomposite having a content of 20% wt of nanosilica was used. Emphasis was put on imaging at nanoscale and some dielectric responses were measured using dielectric spectroscopy. Using HAAD mode, an area of less than 4 nm surrounding an isolated particle was imaged and found to have a very low atomic number. Only with AFM in peak-force mode that agglomerates were clearly detected. Relative to the dielectric response, no interfacial relaxation peak was observed. In spite of some agglomeration, the real part of the permittivity was found to be increased by the adjunct of the nanofiller.