Strongly reinforced mechanical and thermal properties of polyamide 66 by high loading titanium dioxide whiskers.

Of large length-to-diameter ratio and specific area, inorganic whiskers were widely applied for polymer reinforcement. As a well-known nanofiller, titanium dioxide (TiO 2) has been welcome by polymer engineering, mostly for whitening with spherical shapes favored. To date, there have been no TiO 2 whiskers reported for polymer reinforcement. In this work, a rutile type TiO 2 whisker was compounded with polyamide 66 (PA66) to prepare nanocomposites with surficial modification being conducted to further improve the compatibility between them. It was found that the rutile-type TiO 2 whisker significantly improves the mechanical properties of PA66 at high loadings and the performance went better when surficial modification for it was applied. Under 50 wt% addition of TiO 2 whisker either modified or not, the tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength and heat deformation temperature of prepared PA66 composites were respectively increased by 52 %, 279 %, 44 %, 313 %, 20 %, 199 % and 84 %, 279 %, 88 %, 303 %, 114 %, 207 %, comparing with the pristine PA66. The mechanism regarding the overall reinforcement was analyzed, which was attributed to the shape-relevant multiple interactions between TiO 2 and PA66. Besides, the improved adhesion due to strong stable chemical bonding by surficial modification of fillers, is also accountable. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]