Molding of Filled Polymer Nanocomposites

人们对交通运输的轻量化解决方案有着相当大的兴趣，随着电动汽车生产和采购的增长，这一点越来越重要。聚合物复合材料提供轻量化和部件集成，以及导热性和导电性管理的机会。向聚合物中添加功能性填料是增强聚合物基质的性质如机械、热和/或电性能的常用方法。填料包括广泛的颗粒类型（无机或有机填料）、尺寸和几何形状（纵横比）以及性能（电、热和机械）增强。玻璃纤维和碳纤维主要被引入以改善聚合物基体的机械性能，而碳基填料（例如，炭黑、石墨纤维、石墨烯）改善了所得聚合物复合材料的导电性和导热性。在碳基填料的情况下，将所选填料分散在基质中也很重要，所述基质可以是单一聚合物或聚合物共混物。电子、汽车、生物医学、微系统和微机电系统领域对聚合物基复合材料部件的需求不断增加。现在对更大规模的导电和导热部件的需求日益增加，以支撑需要注射和压缩成型技术的电动车辆中的部件，例如电池外壳和燃料电池部件。开发导电导热部件的主要挑战之一是保持整个部件的导电性能的均匀性。有大量的文献与实验数据和建模在小实验室规模的样品。然而，有一个显着的差距，在文献中的流动行为对填料分布和随后的导电性能的影响，将在工业实践中生产的大型组件。材料系统选择、填料在聚合物基质中的混合-分散以及成型加工步骤的整个链条都有助于导电性能的均匀性。此外，人们越来越有兴趣通过虚拟过程链中的仿真来捕获整个过程，以便能够根据工业4.0设计产品和过程。这项研究计划的长期目标是能够模拟纳米颗粒填充聚合物在大长度尺度差异上的导电性能，以有利于加拿大的先进制造业。短期目标是建模和实验验证纳米颗粒分布和随后的导电性能，并提供HQP培训1）小规模系统，微注塑成型; 2）中等规模系统，传统注塑成型和3）大规模系统，压缩成型。

There has been considerable interest in lightweighting solutions for transportation, which is now growing in importance with the growth in production and acquisition of electric vehicles. Polymer composite materials offer lightweighting and part integration, as well as opportunities for thermal and electrical conductivity management. The addition of functional fillers to polymers is a common method to enhance properties such as the mechanical, thermal, and/or electrical performance of polymer matrices. Fillers include a broad range of particle types (inorganic or organic fillers), size and geometry (aspect ratio) and properties (electrical, thermal, and mechanical) enhancement. Glass and carbon fibers are mainly introduced to improve the mechanical properties of polymer matrices, while carbon-based fillers (e.g., carbon black, graphite fiber, graphene) improve the electrical and thermal conductivity properties of the resulting polymer composites. In the case of carbon-based fillers, it is also important to disperse the chosen fillers in the matrix, which could be a single polymer or polymer blend. There has been increasing demand for polymer based composite components in the areas of electronics, automotive, biomedicals, microsystems, and microelectromechanical systems. There is now increasing demand for electrically and thermally conductive components at larger scales to support components such as battery enclosures and fuel cell components in electrical vehicles requiring injection and compression molding techniques. One of the major challenges in developing electrically-thermally conductive components is to maintain the uniformity of conductivity properties over the entire part. There is a large body of literature with experimental data and modeling done at the small laboratory scale of sample. There is however a significant gap in the literature on the effects of flow behaviour on the filler distribution and subsequent conductivity properties for large components that would be produced in industrial practice. The entire chain of material system selection, mixing-dispersion of the filler in the polymer matrix and the molding processing step all contribute to the uniformity of conductivity properties. In addition, there is increasing interest in capturing the full process through simulation in a virtual process chain to be able to design products and processes in line with Industry 4.0. The long-term objective of this proposed research program is to be able to simulate the conductivity properties of nanoparticle filled polymers over large length scale differences to benefit advanced manufacturing in Canada. The short term objectives are to model and experimentally validate the nanoparticle distribution and subsequent conductivity properties, and provide HQP training 1) in small-scale systems, microinjection molding; 2) intermediate scale systems, conventional injection molding and 3) large scale systems, compression molding.