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Muhammad A, Srivastava R, Koutroumanis N, Semitekolos D, Chiavazzo E, Pappas PN, Galiotis C, Asinari P, Charitidis CA, Fasano M. Mesoscopic Modeling and Experimental Validation of Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Nanocomposites Reinforced By Graphene-Based Fillers. Macromolecules 2023; 56:9969-9982. [PMID: 38161324 PMCID: PMC10753874 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.3c01529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
The development of nanocomposites relies on structure-property relations, which necessitate multiscale modeling approaches. This study presents a modeling framework that exploits mesoscopic models to predict the thermal and mechanical properties of nanocomposites starting from their molecular structure. In detail, mesoscopic models of polypropylene (PP)- and graphene-based nanofillers (graphene (Gr), graphene oxide (GO), and reduced graphene oxide (rGO)) are considered. The newly developed mesoscopic model for the PP/Gr nanocomposite provides mechanistic information on the thermal and mechanical properties at the filler-matrix interface, which can then be exploited to enhance the prediction accuracy of traditional continuum simulations by calibrating the thermal and mechanical properties of the filler-matrix interface. Once validated through a dedicated experimental campaign, this multiscale model demonstrates that with the modest addition of nanofillers (up to 2 wt %), the Young's modulus and thermal conductivity show up to 35 and 25% enhancement, respectively, whereas the Poisson's ratio slightly decreases. Among the different combinations tested, the PP/Gr nanocomposite shows the best mechanical properties, whereas PP/rGO demonstrates the best thermal conductivity. This validated mesoscopic model can contribute to the development of smart materials with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties based on polypropylene, especially for mechanical, energy storage, and sensing applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atta Muhammad
- Department
of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Mehran University
of Engineering and Technology, SZAB Campus, 66020 Khairpur Mir’s, Sindh, Pakistan
| | - Rajat Srivastava
- Department
of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
- Department
of Engineering for Innovation, University
of Salento, Piazza Tancredi
7, 73100, Lecce, Italy
| | - Nikolaos Koutroumanis
- Foundation
of Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute
of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Stadioustr Rion26504, Patras, Greece
| | - Dionisis Semitekolos
- School
of Chemical Engineering, National Technical
University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou, 15780 Athens, Greece
| | - Eliodoro Chiavazzo
- Department
of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
| | - Panagiotis-Nektarios Pappas
- Foundation
of Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute
of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Stadioustr Rion26504, Patras, Greece
| | - Costas Galiotis
- Foundation
of Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute
of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Stadioustr Rion26504, Patras, Greece
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 1 Caratheodory26504 Patras, Greece
| | - Pietro Asinari
- Department
of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
- Istituto
Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino, Italy
| | - Costas A. Charitidis
- School
of Chemical Engineering, National Technical
University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou, 15780 Athens, Greece
| | - Matteo Fasano
- Department
of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
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Muhammad A, Sáenz Ezquerro C, Srivastava R, Asinari P, Laspalas M, Chiminelli A, Fasano M. Atomistic to Mesoscopic Modelling of Thermophysical Properties of Graphene-Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites. NANOMATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 13:1960. [PMID: 37446476 DOI: 10.3390/nano13131960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2023] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
This research addresses the need for a multiscale model for the determination of the thermophysical properties of nanofiller-enhanced thermoset polymer composites. Specifically, we analyzed the thermophysical properties of an epoxy resin containing bisphenol-A diglyceryl ether (DGEBA) as an epoxy monomer and dicyandiamide (DICY) and diethylene triamine (DETA) as cross-linking agents. The cross-linking process occurs at the atomistic scale through the formation of bonds among the reactive particles within the epoxy and hardener molecules. To derive the interatomic coarse-grained potential for the mesoscopic model and match the density of the material studied through atomic simulations, we employed the iterative Boltzmann inversion method. The newly developed coarse-grained molecular dynamics model effectively reproduces various thermophysical properties of the DGEBA-DICY-DETA resin system. Furthermore, we simulated nanocomposites made of the considered epoxy additivated with graphene nanofillers at the mesoscopic level and verified them against continuum approaches. Our results demonstrate that a moderate amount of nanofillers (up to 2 wt.%) increases the elastic modulus and thermal conductivity of the epoxy resin while decreasing the Poisson's ratio. For the first time, we present a coarse-grained model of DGEBA-DICY-DETA/graphene materials, which can facilitate the design and development of composites with tunable thermophysical properties for a potentially wide range of applications, e.g., automotive, aerospace, biomedical, or energy ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atta Muhammad
- Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, MUET SZAB Campus, Khairpur Mir's 66020, Pakistan
| | | | - Rajat Srivastava
- Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
- Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
| | - Pietro Asinari
- Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, 10135 Torino, Italy
| | - Manuel Laspalas
- Aragon Institute of Technology ITAINNOVA, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
| | | | - Matteo Fasano
- Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
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Qi P, Zhu H, Borodich F, Peng Q. A Review of the Mechanical Properties of Graphene Aerogel Materials: Experimental Measurements and Computer Simulations. MATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 16:1800. [PMID: 36902915 PMCID: PMC10004370 DOI: 10.3390/ma16051800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Graphene aerogels (GAs) combine the unique properties of two-dimensional graphene with the structural characteristics of microscale porous materials, exhibiting ultralight, ultra-strength, and ultra-tough properties. GAs are a type of promising carbon-based metamaterials suitable for harsh environments in aerospace, military, and energy-related fields. However, there are still some challenges in the application of graphene aerogel (GA) materials, which requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanical properties of GAs and the associated enhancement mechanisms. This review first presents experimental research works related to the mechanical properties of GAs in recent years and identifies the key parameters that dominate the mechanical properties of GAs in different situations. Then, simulation works on the mechanical properties of GAs are reviewed, the deformation mechanisms are discussed, and the advantages and limitations are summarized. Finally, an outlook on the potential directions and main challenges is provided for future studies in the mechanical properties of GA materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Penghao Qi
- School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
| | - Hanxing Zhu
- School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
| | - Feodor Borodich
- College of Aerospace Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
| | - Qing Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
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Liu N, Becton M, Zhang L, Chen H, Zeng X, Pidaparti R, Wang X. A coarse-grained model for mechanical behavior of phosphorene sheets. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2019; 21:1884-1894. [PMID: 30632560 DOI: 10.1039/c8cp06918b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The popularity of phosphorene (known as monolayer black phosphorus) in electronic devices relies on not only its superior electrical properties, but also its mechanical stability beyond the nanoscale. However, the mechanical performance of phosphorene beyond the nanoscale remains poorly explored owing to the spatiotemporal limitation of experimental observations, first-principles calculations, and atomistic simulations. To overcome this limitation, here a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG-MD) model is developed via a strain energy conservation approach to offer a new computational tool for the investigation of the mechanical properties of phosphorene beyond the nanoscale. The mechanical properties of a single phosphorene sheet are first characterized by all-atom molecular dynamics (AA-MD) simulations, followed by a force-field parameter optimization of the CG-MD model by matching these mechanical properties from AA-MD simulations. The intrinsic out-of-plane puckered feature is conserved in our CG-MD model, rendering mechanical anisotropy and heterogeneity in both the in-plane and out-of-plane directions preserved. The results indicate that our coarse-grained model is able to accurately capture the anisotropic in-plane mechanical performance of phosphorene and quantitatively reproduce Young's modulus, ultimate strength, and fracture strain under various environmental temperatures. Our CG-MD model can also capture the anisotropic out-of-plane bending stiffness of phosphorene. We demonstrate the applicability of our model in capturing the fracture toughness of phosphorene in both the armchair and zigzag directions by comparison with the results from AA-MD simulations. This CG-MD model proposed here offers greater capability to perform mechanical mesoscale simulations for phosphorene-based systems, allowing for a deeper understanding of the mechanical properties of phosphorene beyond the nanoscale, and the potential transferability of the developed force-field can help design hybrid phosphorene devices and structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning Liu
- College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
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Liu X, He X, Wang J, Sun L, Oterkus E. An ordinary state-based peridynamic model for the fracture of zigzag graphene sheets. Proc Math Phys Eng Sci 2018; 474:20180019. [PMID: 30333695 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2018.0019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Accepted: 08/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
This study develops an ordinary state-based peridynamic coarse-graining (OSPD-CG) model for the investigation of fracture in single-layer graphene sheets (SLGS), in which the peridynamic (PD) parameters are derived through combining the PD model and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations from the fully atomistic system via energy conservation. The fracture failure of pre-cracked SLGS under uniaxial tension is studied using the proposed PD model. And the PD simulation results agree well with those from MD simulations, including the stress-strain relations, the crack propagation patterns and the average crack propagation velocities. The interaction effect between cracks located at the centre and the edge on the crack propagation of the pre-cracked SLGS is discussed in detail. This work shows that the proposed PD model is much more efficient than the MD simulations and, thus, indicates that the PD-based method is applicable to study larger nanoscale systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuefeng Liu
- Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Xiaoqiao He
- Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Jinbao Wang
- School of Port and Transportation Engineering, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, People's Republic of China
| | - Ligang Sun
- Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Erkan Oterkus
- Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
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