Preparation, characterisation and computational study of poly(ε-caprolactone) based nanocomposites

In recent years, scientific and industrial interest has been focused on the preparation of organic/inorganic nanocomposites because of their unique hybrid properties correlated with the enormous interfacial adhesion region that is a characteristic of nanoparticles. The objective of the whole research was to improve poly-caprolactone (PCL) mechanical and barrier performances by using silica spherical nanoparticles for filling. In particular, in order to improve the polymeric matrix/inorganic nanofiller's interfacial adhesion and consequently to achieve a fine nanometric dispersion, silica nanoparticles have been chemically modified by grafting onto them a hydroxyl end-capped PCL, after wheich they have been melt blended with high molecular weight PCL. In the present paper, details on the synthesis, morphology and mechanical properties of the prepared nanocomposites are reported. Moreover, a numerical tool has been used to predict the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite, starting from the morphology of the material observed by scanning electron micrography, and the individual properties of the constituents.