Molding of Filled Polymer Nanocomposites

人们对交通运输的轻量化解决方案非常感兴趣，随着电动汽车生产和采购的增长，轻量化解决方案的重要性日益提高。聚合物复合材料提供了轻量化和部件集成化，以及导热性和导电性管理的机会。在聚合物中添加功能性填料是提高聚合物基体机械、热学和/或电学性能的常用方法。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（长宽比）和性能（电学，热学和机械）增强。引入玻璃纤维和碳纤维主要是为了改善聚合物基体的机械性能，而碳基填料（如炭黑、石墨纤维、石墨烯）则提高了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体中也很重要，基体可以是单一聚合物或聚合物共混物。电子、汽车、生物医药、微系统和微机电系统等领域对聚合物基复合材料的需求不断增加。为了支持电动汽车中需要注射和压缩成型技术的电池外壳和燃料电池组件等组件，现在对更大规模的导电和导热组件的需求不断增加。开发电热导元件的主要挑战之一是保持整个部件导电性的均匀性。有大量文献的实验数据和模型是在小实验室规模的样本上完成的。然而，在工业实践中生产的大型部件的流动行为对填料分布和随后的导电性的影响方面，文献中存在显著的差距。整个材料体系的选择、填料在聚合物基体中的混合-分散和成型加工步骤都有助于导电性能的均匀性。此外，人们对通过虚拟流程链中的模拟来捕获整个流程越来越感兴趣，以便能够设计符合工业4.0的产品和流程。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范围内的电导率特性，从而使加拿大的先进制造业受益。短期目标是模拟和实验验证纳米颗粒的分布和随后的电导率特性，并提供HQP培训1)在小规模系统，微注射成型；2)中等规模系统，常规注射成型；3)大型系统，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.