Effect of nanoparticle network formation on electromagnetic properties and cell morphology of microcellular polymer nanocomposite foams

Abstract Adding high loadings of nanoparticles can remarkably alter the functionality of polymer nanocomposite foams. Therefore, this dramatic change was studied at the percolation threshold as a point to predict the properties of foamed nanocomposites using the viscoelastic characteristics of un-foamed ones. In this research, the effect of incorporating 10–40 wt% of ZnO nanoparticles on rheological properties of PS/ZnO samples was investigated. Then, these samples were foamed at processing temperatures of 80 and 120 °C to study morphology and electromagnetic properties. First, the rheological study showed that the storage modulus of nanocomposites increased significantly above 20 wt% of nanoparticles. A connected network of nanoparticles altered the microstructure of nanocomposite at this rheological percolation. The morphological results show a higher cell density for foamed samples above the rheological percolation. From electromagnetic properties, the effect of ZnO connected network is obvious on the absorption enhancement for 30 and 40 wt% and only for 40 wt% of ZnO at 80 and 120 °C, respectively. Therefore, the viscoelastic properties of samples are still dominant at the lower temperature, but the foam structure became more important at the higher temperatures. This shows that the role of the filler network faded at the higher temperature and electromagnetic properties were changed with the foam structure. The microstructure expansion results in the decrease of filler amount at a fixed volume of foams, so more filler fraction is required to form a connected network of nanoparticles.