Fundamental Understanding of Nanofiller Dispersion in Polymer Systems for Electronics Applications

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The research objective of this award is to study nanodispersion in modified filler systems and composite materials, as they apply to electronic and photonic packaging systems. A variety of novel techniques will be used to integrate dissimilar materials on the nano and microscale and study the rheological effects. The approaches include; (1) Interactions between filler materials and matrix components such as hardener additives will be studied, providing a clear understanding of the relationship between suppression of filler-filler attractive interactions and enhancement of filler-polymer interactions. (2) Investigations will be conducted regarding the interactions between in-situ nanofillers and other composite components including micron-sized fillers and capping agents/hardeners. (3) A variety of multifunctional materials will be employed as self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) to eliminate attractive filler-filler interactions and promote filler-polymer interactions. (4) The rheological properties of the final composite materials will be directly related to suppression of attractive filler-filler interactions through the above approaches. (5) Molecular dynamics modeling will be conducted to better understand filler-filler and nanofiller-polymer interactions on a molecular scale so that nanodispersed composites may be obtained as homogeneous and reproducible samples.If successful, the benefits of this research will include a clear relationship between the data obtained from the modeling and actual production and characterization of final materials, resulting in enabling scientists and engineers from both industry and academia to overcome a variety of problems encountered where composite materials are employed which contain nanofillers. It will also enable the fabrication of highly efficient electrically conductive adhesives and high dielectric constant, low loss dielectric composites as well as a number of composite materials applicable to a variety of electronic packaging systems. This research will not only be useful in the areas of electronic packaging, but as well in any area where nanofiller materials are used. The recent public interests and government initiatives have created many utopias and many high expectations on the results obtained from nanotechnology research. The fundamental understanding of nanodispersion obtained through this work will be essential to make some of these expectations a reality.