Environmental stress cracking (ESC) resistance of polycarbonate/SiO₂ nanocomposites in different media

Abstract

Polycarbonate (PC) nanocomposites containing different nano‐SiO2 contents were prepared using a twin‐screw extruder followed by injection molding. The mechanical behavior and environmental stress cracking (ESC) resistance of the nanocomposites were investigated. Compared to neat PC, the incorporation of nanofiller leads to a slight improvement in Young's modulus, tensile strength, and notched impact strength properties. Interestingly, the nanofiller enhanced the environmental stress cracking resistance of PC in different fluids (isopropanol, methanol, aqueous urea solution, and deionized water) vastly. The correlation of the mode I critical stress intensity factor with the Hansen solubility parameter shows a very good agreement for different fluids and thus allows the prediction of the stress cracking behavior as a function of the filler content for different stress‐cracking agents. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45451.

Probing toughness of polycarbonate (PC: ductile and brittle)/polypropylene (PP) blends and talc‐triggered PC/PP brittle composites with diverse impact fracture parameters

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Effects of nanoparticle size and concentration on optical, toughness, and thermal properties of polycarbonate

“…After extrusion, the compound granules were injection‐molded into 50 × 50 × 4 mm 3 sheets using an injection molding machine (ENGEL victory 80, ENGEL Austria GmbH, Schwertberg, Austria) for further tests. The impact and fracture toughness test specimens were milled from the injection‐molded sheets …”

The Influence of Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC) and Gamma Irradiation on the Mechanical Properties of Polycarbonate: Study of Synergistic Effects

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