Characterization of the polymer/particle interphase in composite materials by molecular probing

11 figures, 5 tables.-- Supplementary information available.-- © 2020. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
In this study, a new method was developed for the characterization of the interface morphology in polymer/particle composites. This method, not limited to a specific polymer or particle, utilizes the gas permeability of the composites to determine the interfacial properties such as the type of polymer-particle interactions as well as the thickness and the transport properties of the interphase. Moreover, it can be employed to determine the size of the aggregates in the case of particle aggregation. The proposed method was evaluated by comparing its results with the findings of the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis for polyethersulfone (PES)-based composites containing pristine and fumed silica nanoparticles. Our method was also evaluated by analyzing the results of other studies obtained from the literature.
B.Z. acknowledges the “Juan de la Cierva” Program (IJCI-2016-30776).