Data added

action.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,714 @@
+The TiO2 nanoparticles with a rod-shaped dimension ( 20 nm   70 nm) were prepared via a hydrothermal reaction of titanium tetraisopropoxide (Ti(OiPr)4) and hydrogen peroxide at 100 8C for 12 h.
+The composites were prepared by adding the fillers into an epoxy resin  diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-F, Epon 862, Hexion Specialty Chemicals.
+BaTiO3 nanofibers were prepared via electrospinning.
+PVDF/ xGnP nanocomposites were prepared as follows
+NT-Al2O3 (non-treated alumina) and APTES–Al2O3 (3- aminopropyltriethoxysilane treated alumina) filled epoxy nanocomposites with 5, 10, 15 and 20 phr (phr – per hundred gram resin) nanoparticle concentrations were prepared.
+Typical  single-filler  nanocomposites were obtained when a single inorganic constituent— either BT or oMMT—was dispersed in the epoxy matrix, whereas dual-filler composites were obtained by a simultaneous dispersion of both inorganic components in the organic matrix.
+[2,2':5',2''-Terthiophene]-5-ethanol was prepared as outlined in the literature [27]
+In addition, BTO particles were prepared using conventional solid-state synthesis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for comparison.
+The Ag nanoparticles were prepared by a method similar to those previously reported.
+In this work, the thermosets were prepared with the content of P(VDF-TrFE)-g-PMMA up to 40 wt %.
+The composite samples were prepared as follows.
+Hybrid-fiber composites were prepared by suspending individual hybrid fibers in a DGEBA-based epoxy consisting of EPON 828 resin ( 52wt%), a nadic methyl anhydride (NMA) hardener ( 46 wt%) and Ancamine K61B ( 2 wt%) as catalyst.
+The hyperbranched aromatic polyamide functionalized nanoparticles were prepared by in situ polymerization of DABA on the surface of BT-NH,
+The hydroxylated BaTiO3 nanoparticles were prepared by refluxing the as received BaTiO3 nanoparticles in 30 wt % aqueous solution of H2O2 (105 °C, 4 h).
+The polyaniline (PANI)–TiO2 nanocomposite is prepared as follows
+These NPs were prepared using phenyltrimethoxysilane (PhTMS) as a coupling agent.
+The PVP-TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by the non- hydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG) process using tetra isopropyl orthotitanante (TIOT) and poly vinylpyrrolidone with ethanol as a solvent.
+nano composites were prepared by dispersing barium titanate  BT  and/or oMMT clay particles in epoxy resin.
+and the resin was diluted and combined with aliphatic amine based Huntsman Aradur 956-2 hardener to achieve the appropriate final composite loading.
+Measured amounts of TIOT and PVP were stirred magnetically for 20 min with ethanol at room temperature to avoid local inhomogeneities.
+No catalysts were added.
+The nanocomposite was prepared by adding appropriate amounts of silica (0.250%, 0.125% and 0.050%) or modified silica to the above mixture before adding potassium persulfate as initiator.
+A series of PVDF/CCTO composites with varying concentrations (0–55%) of CCTO by volume were fabricated.
+0.5 and 2.0 wt % MWNT/polycarbonate composites (of as-received and surface-modified states) were prepared.
+The composite samples prepared in this work contained AR-MWCNT concentrations of 2, 5 and 10 wt%,
+The ‘toughened’ epoxy system was prepared with 5 phr (parts per hundred resin by weight) of a commercial triblock copolymer (M52N, Arkema) containing midblocks of n-butyl acrylate with symmetrical endblocks of random copolymers of methyl methacrylate and N,N0 -dimethylacrylamide.
+The resulting solution became highly viscous after a few seconds.
+The TiO2-PVP composite gels, which are transparent and viscous, are dried in an oven at 60oC for 24 h in air
+Finally, the samples were annealed in air at 360oC for 2h to obtain the TiO2-PVP composite material with TiO2 nanocrystals.
+The actual filler loading of composites after processing was determined by a therrnogravimetric analysis (TGA), which was conducted with a TGA 2050 (from Thermal Advantages Inc.) under a nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 10 oC/min.
+BST/P(VDF−HFP) and P(VDF−HFP) films were prepared in the same way,
+a desired amount of xGnPs was first ultrasonically dispersed in 200mL of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) for 1 h
+Then, PVDF was added into the xGnP suspension
+After stirring for 30 min at 80 8C
+Recessed samples [29,30] were used for breakdown tests, disks were created for dielectric spectroscopy, and microtome samples were created and processed for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis.
+and ultrasonicating for another 2 h
+Two types of composites were prepared by this method:
+the mixture was poured onto a glass plate to form a thin film
+and dried at 708C for 3 days
+Samples for testing were made by hot-pressing several solution-cast films stacked together at 2008C
+Aniline is distilled twice under reduced pressure and stored below 4 ◦ C in nitrogen atmosphere.
+In a typical synthesis 8 g of titanium isopropoxide is dissolved in 50 ml of 0.1(N) HCl to get a clear solution.
+The samples meant for electrical testing were metallized with ~150 A ̊ of sputtered gold.
+Graphite oxide was prepared from natural graphite powder by a modified Hummers method.28–30
+This solution is added dropwise to 500 ml of double distilled water under constant stirring.
+pH of the resulting solution is adjusted using dilute NH4OH until it becomes 3
+Thus the white coloured colloid formed is dialysed until free from ions and stored in a 500 ml volumetric flasks
+1.5 M of an acidic aqueous solution of APS (precooled) using varying amounts of concentrated HCl and keeping a 1:1.25 monomer:APS mole ratio is then added dropwise under sonication.
+The polymerization is allowed to proceed for 24 h maintaining the temperature at 0–5 ◦ C
+The solution is then washed several times with 1.5 M HCl
+and deionized water under ultra-centrifugation
+followed by drying in a vacuum oven at 60 ◦ C for 24 h to obtain afinegreenpowder.
+Step 1. AgNO3 (5 g) was dissolved in 300 mL of ethylene glycol in a 500 mL three-neck flask, followed by the addition of 5 g of BaTiO3 under magnetic stirring.
+The crystal seeds of Ag formed after about 30 min,
+In this process, the magnetic stirring lasted 2 h at room temperature.
+Step 2. The temperature of the mixture was increased from room temperature to 140 °C in the oil base.
+The reaction was kept at 140 °C for 25 min,
+Then, the BT-Ag suspension was obtained which was rinsed and centrifuged three times with ethanol.
+At last, the obtained BT-Ag hybrid particles were dried at room temperature for 24 h.
+he composites of BT-Ag/PVDF were fabricated through a simple blending and hotpressing process, described as follows.
+BT-Ag and PVDF powders were mixed in ethanol solution.
+Then, the suspension was stirred under ultrasonic treatment with the frequency and power of 40 kHz and 1 kW, respectively, for 1 h to disperse the BT-Ag nanoparticles homogeneously.
+The suspension was further magnetically stirred for 6 h.
+Afterward, the suspension was dried at 70 °C in an oven for 12 h and then molded by hot pressing at about 180 °C and 15 MPa for 15 min.
+(i) addition of 1 g of Al2O3 to 50 ml of 95% ethanol;
+(ii) sonication of the mixture for 5 min using a wand at 1 min intervals;
+(iii) addition of 1.5 g APTES ((C2H5O)3- Si–CH2–CH2–CH2–NH2) and sonication of the mixture for another 10 min;
+(iv) refluxing the mixture for 3 days at 80 °C in an oil bath;
+(v) centrifuging and washing the nanoparticles with ethanol and hexane to remove the byproducts and extra silane
+followed by drying of the particles in a vacuum oven at room temperature for 24 h.
+Before using, the NT-Al2O3 nanoparticles were dried in vacuum at 190 °C for 24 h.
+First, the nanoparticles were dispersed in the liquid epoxy resin (Araldite F) to prepare a ‘‘masterbatch”.
+A well-dispersed masterbatch was achieved by shear mixing at 3450 rpm for 20 min using a Hauschild SpeedMixerÒ (DAC-150).
+for the APTES–Al2O3 nanocomposites, the dispersion was improved by adding 1/8” alumina balls during mixing.
+The balls were removed before curing.
+Second, the hardener (Aradur HY905) and catalyst (DY062) were added as per composition requirements into the masterbatch.
+Third, the mixture was mixed, degassed at room temperature, cured at 80 °C for 6 h, and post-cured at 135 °C for 10 h.
+Neat polymer samples were made to compare with the nanocomposites.
+Silicone rubber molds were used to prepare the test samples.
+Spherical silica particles (14 ± 4 nm diameter; Nissan Chemicals) were grafted with polystyrene chains by the reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization technique.
+Particles in solution (either benzene or tetrahydrofuran) were sonicated for 15 s and then mixed with the matrix polystyrene homopolymers.
+This was followed by sonication for another 2 min.
+The composites, in solution, were cast onto glass Petri dishes, dried to remove the solvent and then annealed for varying times (1–19 days) in a vacuum oven under a pressure of 10−4 torr at 150 ◦ C.
+The Ag nanoparticles were in-situ synthesized in the epoxy matrix via chemical reduction, specifically reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO3) with hydroquinone.8
+Different amounts of capping agents with respect to AgNO3 were introduced to prevent the Ag nanoparticles from agglomerating.
+PAA solutions (PMDA–MDA) were prepared with the following steps:
+The amount of hydroquinone was equivalent to 1.2 times the stoichiometric requirement (each mole of silver nitrate requires a half mole of hydroquinone for reduction).
+Finally the solvent was evaporated at room temperature for 30 min using a rotary evaporator under reduced pressure.
+The resistivity of LDPE powder was measured to be the same as that of the bulk LDPE used for homogeneous composites.
+Control samples of pure PMMA were prepared following the same procedures.
+The silica NPs (15 nm in diameter, from Nissan Chemicals) were grafted with polystyrene chains of 105 kg/mol molecular mass (polydispersity, PDI = 1.15) at a grafting density of 0.05 chains/nm2 by the reversible addition- fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) method.
+BaTiO3 and Ni powders with a nearly spherical shape were used
+The nanocomposite films were fabricated on silicon substrates with a platinum bottom electrode for electrical measurement, by solution processing.
+The ARG/PMMA and EG/PMMA composites and pure PMMA control samples, were prepared following similar procedures as described above.
+Multi-recess samples and  planar sampleswith different thickness were prepared as illustrated in Figure 1.
+CB/epoxy composites were prepared by adding carbon black into the mixture of the epoxy resin and hardener.
+The carbon black was dispersed in the epoxy resin by an ultrasonicator for 1 h,
+and then further mixed through a three-roll-mill for 10 runs.
+All measurements were performed on 1-mm-thick flat specimens.
+The Ag/CB/epoxy composite was prepared by mixing the in-situ formed nano Ag/epoxy mixture and CB/epoxy mixture via stirring for 15 min and then ultrasonication for 2 h.
+After thermal shock, the graphite was added into the acetone bath and sonicated in the ultrasonic equipment for exfoliation,
+Standard procedures were followed for sample mixing, degassing, and casting.
+Films of the uncured, liquid composite were applied to freshly exposed, polished copper (Electronic grade 110 alloy, 0.8125 mm thick, #8 finish, obtained from McMaster Carr).
+The grafting densities were measured using a thermal gravimetric analyser and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy.
+For processing a sample using this epoxy resin and hardener, 100 parts by weight of the CY1300 resin is mixed homogenously with 25 parts by weight of the HY956 hardener.
+MWNTs were synthesized at Rensselaer using a chemical vapor deposition method on silicon wafers [21].
+Multi-recess samples and planar samples with different thickness were prepared as illustrated in Figure 1.
+Control samples of pure PMMA were prepared following the same procedures.
+and then the very thin GNPs were obtained in acetone solvent.
+After heating the bisphenol type epoxy resin (D.E.R.331, DOW Chemicals) to 60 °C, the curing agent (methyltetrahydroph- thalic anhydride, MTHPA, DOW Chemicals) and GNP-acetone mixture were added into the epoxy resin under ultrasonication and continuously stirring for 1 h to obtain a uniform dispersion.
+Then the mixed epoxy system containing a certain content of accelerator (2,4,6-tri(dimethylaminomethyl) phe-nol, DMP-30, DOW Chemicals) was poured into a preheated mold at 90 °C and cured with standard procedure.
+A silica sol  Klebosol) and caprolactam were mixed into a reactor, the polycondensation of PA6 was then getting started.
+through a two-phase synthetic approach where the particles were formed at the interface between the organic and aqueous phase [19].
+Electrode was painted with silver paste for the electrical test.
+MWNTs were grown at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) by thermal chemical vapor deposition of xylene–ferrocene feedstock at 700  C in a quartz tube furnace.
+Prop-2-ynyl 4-cyano-4-(phenyl carbonothioylthio) pentanoate was synthesized according to previous work.
+TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized via a solvothermal method by modifying the procedure reported by Li et al.
+Alkyne terminated poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) based on our previous work
+Alkyne functionalized oligothiophene was synthesized as follows.
+Titanium dioxide TiO2 colloid is synthesized at room temperature by the acid hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide.
+The samples were manufactured at the ABB research center in Switzerland using a similar protocol as the one detailed in [5, 6].
+The CE resin formulations containing actual AgSbF6 content ranging from 3 to 20 wt.-%, and DMPA (2 wt.-%) were coated onto glass substrates using a wire-wound applicator,
+Free-standing oxide-polyimide nanocomposite thin films with oxide nanoparticle contents up to 20 vol % were fabricated using an “in situ polymerization process,”
+The as-cast films were dried at 50  C for 10 h. 
+The first step was to synthesize sodium titanate (Na2Ti3O7) NWs as an intermediate product according to previous literature.
+A second hydrothermal reaction was then employed to synthesize Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 NWs according to Tang’s method
+The typical process for fabricating P(VDF−HFP)- based nanocomposite films was as follows:
+The condensation between PMDA and ODA in DMAc at room temperature yielded a poly(amic acid) (PAA, the precursor of polyimide) solution with certain solid content was synthesized (synthesis method see Ref. [8]).
+The core/shell-structured Ag@C particles were synthesized via a hydrothermal method [18].
+The core/shell Ag@C particles were synthesized via a hydrothermal method [10].
+The ARG/PMMA and EG/PMMA composites and pure PMMA control samples, were prepared following similar procedures as described above.
+The final polymer was injection moulded into the required shapes for macroscopic observations.
+The common size Ba0.55 Sr0.45 TiO3 powder (Filtronic Comtek Ltd., UK) was calcined at 1100◦C for 4h with a fired density of 5.5 g/cm3 for a bulk sample.
+First the COC polymer was weighed and put into the chamber of the Torque Rheometer at a 230 ◦C tem- perature, followed by slow addition of the BST powder.
+after mixing at a speed of 32–64 rpm for 10–20 min
+the BST-COC composite was taken from the chamber and hot-pressed at a 200 ◦C temperature to form samples for measurements.
+A predetermined amount of AgNO3 was dissolved in 2 mL of distilled water.
+A certain amount of mercaptosuc- cinic acid (MSA) and dodecanoic acid (DDA) were dissolved in 20 ml anhydrous methanol.
+The AgNO3 solution was then mixed with the surfactant solution under stirring.
+A freshly prepared NaBH4 solution in anhydrous methanol was then added dropwise.
+The reacting solution was kept under stirring for an additional 10 min.
+The dark precipitate was separated from the liquid by centrifugation.
+The precipitated silver nanoparticles were washed by distilled water and then refluxed in methanol three times.
+The Ag nanoparticles were dispersed in acetone after refluxing.
+A certain amount of the epoxy resin (3,4-epoxycyclohexylmethyl-3,4-epoxycy- clohexanecarboxylate, Aldrich) was mixed with the Ag by ball-milling for 10 h.
+The mixture was then mixed with the epoxy hardener (hexahy- dro-4-methylphthalic anhydride, Aldrich) by mechanical stirring.
+The thoroughly mixed epoxy silver composites were spin-coated onto a gold-sputtered aluminum substrate。
+The samples were heated at 45 C for 2 h and then at 160  C for 1 h to cure the epoxy
+This coating heating cycle was repeated several times to achieve the desired film thickness
+A gold layer was deposited as the top electrode after the curing
+Tip-sonication (30 min, 25% amplitude, Hielscher UP200S, Germany) was used before the refluxing reaction.
+The treated nanoparticles were washed with deionized water
+and then were dried at 105 °C under vacuum (10 h).
+The hydroxylated BaTiO3 nanoparticles was first ground in a ceramic mortar,
+and then the nanoparticles and silane couple agents were simultaneously added to a three-necked flask containing dry toluene.
+The suspension was mechanically stirred at 135 °C for 24 h under a N2 atmosphere.
+The silane coupling agent functionalized BaTiO3 nanoparticles were recovered by centrifugation and then washed with fresh ethanol.
+The final product was dried in a vacuum oven (105 °C, 10 h) and then was stored in a desiccator.
+Briefly, BT-NH was first dispersed in NMP under sonication.
+Once the DABA was fully dissolved, pyridine and TPP were added into the suspension as a condenser.
+The suspension was heated to 100 °C and held at this temperature for 6 h stirred under dry nitrogen flow.
+When the reaction was finished, the suspension was cooled to room temperature and then precipitated in a methanol/LiCl solution to remove the unreacted DABA.
+The precipitated product was treated by three cycles of centrifugation-resolution in DMF- precipitation in methanol.
+The final product was dried in a vacuum oven at 105 °C to a constant weight and was denoted as BT-HBP.
+Step 1: Dispersing BaTiO3 nanoparticles into a solution of epoxy/curing agent/MEK by a tip-sonication.
+An ice-bath was using during the sonication process in order to avoid the curing reaction.
+Step 2: The resulting suspension was stirred by using a Thinky Mixer (ARE250, Thinky Co.).
+A rotation speed of 2000 rpm and a revolution speed of 1000 rpm were used.
+Graphite oxide was prepared from natural graphite powder by a modified Hummers method.28–30
+This step is unique because the BaTiO3 nanoparticles were homogeneously mixed into the epoxy but also the solvent used for nanoparticle dispersion was removed.
+Two types of composites were prepared by this method:
+PAA solutions (PMDA–MDA) were prepared with the following steps:
+Stage 2 is the sample preparation process, which includes (i) injection of the epoxy/BaTiO3 mixture into a mold,
+(ii) degassing in vacuum,
+(iii) pressing the mold under 30 MPa for about 10 min,
+(v) re- pressing the epoxy/BaTiO3 mixture under about 30 MPa and heating to 70 °C for 3 h pre-curing and then heating to 150 °C for 3 h post-curing,
+(vi) cooling and then obtaining the cured samples from the mold.
+The hybrid particles BT-Ag were prepared with the following two steps.
+Surface treatment of the BaTiO3 particles with  3- glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane  Gelest  was carried out as follows:
+12 g of purified  leached  BT powder were suspended in a solution of 90 ml ethanol, 10 ml distilled water, and 0.6 g of  3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane;
+the mixture was stirred for 24 h, subsequently centrifuged for 10 min
+and finally the precipitated modified powder was dried at 120 °C for 6 h.46,47
+The dispersion of the particles was aided by high shear mixing and sonication of the suspension.
+The suspensions were charged with appropriate amounts of crosslinker, 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole  Curing Agent ImicureTM EMI-24 ,
+The ARG/PMMA and EG/PMMA composites and pure PMMA control samples, were prepared following similar procedures as described above.
+Graphite oxide was prepared from natural graphite powder by a modified Hummers method.
+and were degassed under vacuum to remove any trapped air.
+Films 100  m thick were obtained by casting the solutions between teflon plates and placing them on a hot plate to accelerate the curing process
+the samples were cured at 60 °C for 3 h, and postcured at 180 °C .
+the MWNT/PVDF composites are prepared by using very simple physical blending,
+and subsequently, hot-molding technologies.
+The MWNT/PVDF composites with different volume fractions of MWNT were prepared
+Care was taken to disperse MWNT materials uniformly through the composite.
+Without further purification, MWNT was ultrasonically dispersed in an organic solvent  N, N-dimethylformamide  DMF   for as long as 2 h in order to form a stable suspension.
+At the same time, PVDF powder was dissolved in the DMF solvent at 50 °C.
+Then, the suspension of MWNT in solvent was added into PVDF solution,
+and the solution was stirred by further ultrasonic treatment for 10 min.
+Afterwards, the solution was heated to 60 °C for 8 h to completely evaporate the solvent,
+and consequently molded by hot-pressing at about 200 °C and 15 MPa.
+For electrical measurement, electrodes were painted on using silver paste.
+Alternating current  ac  electrical properties of the samples were measured using HP 4194A impedance in the frequency ranges of 100 Hz – 40 MHz at room temperature.
+The fractured cross- sections of the samples were examined by transmission elec- tron microscopy  TEM, Hitachi H-800 .
+Our composites were prepared by a simple blending and hot-molding procedure.
+A suitable amount of BaTiO3 and Ni powders were blended with PVDF powder.
+The mixtures were then molded by pressing at about 200 °C under a pressure of 10 MPa.
+Disk-shaped samples of 12 mm in diameter were cut from the molded sheet  1 mm in thickness
+and silver-paint electrodes were applied to the samples.
+The dielectric properties of the samples were measured using an HP 4192A impedance analyzer in the frequency range of 100 Hz – 40 MHz at room temperature.
+grafted with a silane coupling agent,
+and reacted with the chain transfer agent.
+and the particles were then dried and weighed.
+Particles were redispersed in THF
+and then surface-polymerized with styrene monomer (ACS grade, Acros Organics) that was passed through a neutral alumina column to remove the inhibitor.
+After polymerization, a sample of grafted chains was cleaved from the surface using hydrofluoric acid,
+The samples were solution-cast and dried slowly in air
+They were then annealed under vacuum at 150  C for a range of times up to 5 days.
+The sol was then transferred into a syringe and electrospun with an applied electric field of 1.5 kV cm 1.
+Fibers consisted of PVP and barium titanate precursor obtained via electrospinning were calcined at 950  C to get BaTiO3 nanofibers.
+For surface modification, the BaTiO3 nanofibers were dispersed into 0.01 mol L 1 of dopamine hydrochloride (99%, Alfa Aesar) aqueous solution and stirred for 10 h at 60  C.
+For the fabrication of the BaTiO3/PVDF-TrFE nanocomposites, the dopamine-modified BaTiO3 nanofibers, poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) were dispersed in N,N-dime- thylformamide (DMF) by ultrasonication for 2 h, followed by stirring for 10 h, to form a stable suspension.
+The particles and polyethylene were melt mixed until the aggregate size was less than 100 nm as measured using scanning electron microscopy.
+the particles were vacuum dried for 24 h immediately prior to compounding.
+All samples were created by hot pressing, and then allowed to cool slowly to room temperature, keeping the pressure constant.
+The samples were post-cured under vacuum which is important since cross-linking byproducts may otherwise affect the electrical properties.
+Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BST) NWs were fabricated by a two-step hydrothermal reaction.
+First, 3 g of TiO2 nanopowder was mixed with 60 mL of 10 M aqueous NaOH solution.
+The mixed solution was then stirred for 24 h, sealed in a 90 mL Teflon autoclave, and maintained in an oven at 200 °C for 3 days.
+The resultant Na2Ti3O7 NWs were washed with deionized water and ethanol until pH-neutral
+and then soaked in a 0.1 M hydrochloric acid aqueous solution for 12 h to produce hydrogen titanate (H2Ti3O7) NWs.
+The obtained H2Ti3O7 NWs were subsequently dried in a vacuum oven at 100 °C.
+Ba(OH)2·8H2O (0.804 g, 2.55 × 10−3 mol) and Sr(OH)2·8H2O (0.120 g, 0.45 × 10−3 mol) were added to H2Ti3O7 (0.129 g, 5 × 10−4 mol) to fully transform the H2Ti3O7 NWs to Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 NWs in a 90 mL Teflon autoclave.
+The mixture was stirred for 24 h and then heated at 210 °C for 85 min.
+The obtained NWs were rinsed several times with 0.1 M aqueous hydrochloric acid solution, deionized water, and ethanol.
+PPFPA@BST was dispersed in DMF, and the dispersion was heated at 80 °C for 30 min and then sonicated for 20 min.
+Meanwhile, P(VDF− HFP) was dissolved in DMF, and the solution was stirred for 30 min.
+The dispersion and solution were then mixed and stirred vigorously for 24 h.
+The mixture was ultrasonicated with a piezoelectric vibrator for another 3 min before casting on a glass plate.
+The films were dried at 100 °C for 2 h and then kept under vacuum at the same temperature for 12 h to remove the solvent thoroughly.
+The obtained films were subsequently molded by hot-pressing at 200 °C.
+Prior to mixing, the nanoparticles were dried overnight in a vacuum oven at a temperature between 185 and 195 C.
+After drying, the particles were removed from the oven and placed in a dessicator to cool.
+Mixtures at the final loading were made by diluting a portion of the masterbatch.
+The masterbatch and diluted composites were mixed using a Hauschild dual asymmetric mixer.
+In the case of alumina composites, alumina balls 3 mm in diameter were added to the final loading mixture to help break up agglomerates and prevent clumping.
+For resin mixtures not immediately used, the material was remixed at 2000 rpm for 60 seconds and 3500 rpm for 60 seconds immediately prior to use.
+The composites were cured at 200 oC for 60 minutes to remove a majority of the solvent, and then 260 oC for 30 minutes, and 400 oC for 5 minutes.
+To get the H202-BT (h-BT) paricles, 5 g of r-BT particles was dispersed in an aqueous solution of H2O2 at 106 °C for 6 h,
+and then centrifuged from the solution and washed with deionized water at least seven times.
+The h-BT particles were dried overnight in a vacuum oven at 80 °C and pestled in an agate mortar to get the h-BT powders.
+To get the D-h-BT nanoparticles, 2 g of h-BT particles was first added into 80 mL of isopropanol and sonicated for 30 min to guarantee a good dispersion of h-BT.
+After that, 0.1 g of DN- 101 was added, and the mixture was magnetically stirred at 70 °C for 2 h.
+The nanoparticles were centrifuged from the solution
+and then redispersed in isopropanol by ultrasonic treatment to remove the DN-101, which only has weak interaction with the BT nanoparticles.
+The above-mentioned processes were repeated at least three times,
+and then the D-h- BT nanoparticles were dried under a vacuum at 80 °C for 12 h and pestled in an agate mortar to get the D-h-BT powders.
+The D-BT nanoparticles were prepared by employing the r-BT particles and DN-101 reaction using the same method.
+The nano- composites were prepared by solution cast method.
+First, the required amount of nanoparticles was dispersed in DMAC by ultrasonic treatment for 30 min.
+At the same time, PVDF was dissolved in DMAC by magnetic stirring.
+The suspension of nanoparticles then was added into the PVDF/DMAC solution.
+Subsequently, the mixture was sonicated for 1 h and stirred for 2 h to get homogeneous nanocomposites.
+The nanocomposites were cast on cleaned class plates by a laboratory casting equipment (LY-150-3, Beijing Orient Sun-Tec Co., Ltd.).
+After being dried on the glass plate at 110 °C, the nanocomposite films were then heated at 80 °C for 12 h under a vacuum to evaporate the residual solution.
+To improve the crystallinity of the nanocomposites, the films were further treated at 200 °C for 15 min,
+and then immediately quenched in ice water.
+Graphene oxide was synthesized from natural graphite powder by a modified Hummers method.46
+A desired amount of graphene–TiO2 hybrid sheets or graphene sheets was first dispersed in 20 ml dichloromethane.
+At the same time, a certain amount of polystyrene (STYRON666H, Dow chemistry) was also dissolved in dichloromethane at 70  C.
+Then, the two solutions were mixed and stirred at 50  C for 30 min.
+The as-prepared mixture was poured onto a Teflon plate to form a thin film.
+Subsequently, the obtained films were dried at room temperature for 1 day,
+and then at 80  C in a vacuum drier for 1 day.
+Samples for testing were made by hot pressing several solution-cast films stacked together at 150  C,
+The oxide nanoparticle suspensions were prepared in n-methyl 2-pyrollidone  NMP  as the solvent for the polymer precursor.
+This oxide-polymer precursor suspension was slip cast on a flat glass surface to form homogeneous films.
+The precursor films were dried to remove the solvent and soft baked at 100 °C for an hour.
+These films were then removed from the glass plate and cured in the temperature range of 180 – 300 ° C in an inert atmosphere to obtain a robust and stress-free nanocomposite thin films.
+LDPE pellets (by Dow Chemical) and silica particles were first dried at elevated temperatures of 85 oC and 165 oC, respectively, to remove absorbed moisture.
+The dried materials were then mixed using a Haake twin-screw thermal mixer, PolyDrive R600 at 130 °C. Dicumyl peroxide (DCP)
+the crosslinking agent, was added to the LDPE and silica mixture at the end of the mixing procedure.
+A temperature of 165 °C was used to hot mold the samples for 15 min under a pressure of 11 MPa to ensure proper crosslinking and removal of bubbles.
+The mold was then moved to an identical cold press to cool the material to room temperature.
+The molded samples were degassed for 3 days at 85 °C with continuous vacuum extraction to remove crosslinking by-products.
+Styrene and methyl methacrylate monomers were passed through a basic alumina column to remove the inhibitor before use
+Activated 4-cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate (CPDB) was prepared according to a procedure described in literature
+At first, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (0.002g) was dissolved in 75 mL distilled water in a 250 mL flask, followed by the addition of 3g BaTiO3.
+The mixture was stirred at 70 °C for 1h.
+Then, 0.023 mol FeCl3·6H2O and 0.046 mol FeSO4· 7H2O were dissolved in the aqueous solution, before the solution was cooled to 55 °C with the deaeration of O2 by N2 bubbling.
+NH3·H2O was slowly added under vigorous stirring to adjust the pH of aqueous solution to 11−12.
+The suspension was stirred for 0.5 h at 55 °C under the protection of N2, after cooled to room temperature.
+The Fe3O4@BaTiO3 suspension was obtained which was rinsed six times with ethanol.
+At last, the obtained Fe3O4@BaTiO3 hybrid particles were dried at 45 °C under vacuum.
+The film was prepared via a solution blending method.
+First, PVDF was fully dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) before blending with a required quantity of Fe3O4@ BaTiO3 particles.
+After sonication for 30 min, the Fe3O4@ BaTiO3/PVDF blend solution was cast on a glass sheet and then dried at 120 °C for 5 h in a vacuum oven.
+Finally, the films were annealed at 135 °C for 2 h.
+Fibers were plasma pretreated and drawn through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber with flowing carbon-based forming gases and nitrogen at temperatures greater than 600 °C.
+Prior to being cured in an epoxy matrix, Hybrid fibers were imaged using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) by use of a Hitachi S-3400N-II at an accelerating voltage of 5 kV and a working distance of  6 mm.
+The epoxy precursors were mixed by hand and degassed under vacuum until all volatiles were released.
+The mixture was transferred to an open mold with the hybrid fibers and cured for 60 min at 70 °C and 80 min at 150 °C under vacuum.
+The cured plaque was sectioned perpendicular to the fibers by a Struers Accutom 5 precision saw with a diamond-coated blade, and embedded in a room temperature cure epoxy medium.
+Serial polishing of each specimen was carried out perpendicular to the fiber direction using a Buhler AutoPolisher down to a final step with a polishing cloth and a 0.05 lm colloidal silica suspension to obtain a flat mirror-like surface.
+Ionomer and nanoparticles were dispersed in methanol in separate vessels by vigorous stirring, followed immediately by intermixing and casting.
+Nanocomposites were drop-cast onto hot glass substrates set just below the boiling point of the casting solvent followed by extensive drying in a vacuum oven at 70 C for 48 h.
+Particles are dried by heating to 195 ̊C in vacuum for 12h prior to mechanically compounding with the resin at 40  ̊C using high rates of shear.
+A sonic probe (Sonics ultrasonic processor Model VC130) is additionally used to alleviate agglomeration.
+The composite resin and hardener are then vacuum degassed for 2h at 35 ̊C before being mixed and specimens cast in polished stainless steel moulds as has previously been described.
+A cure protocol (48 h at 25  ̊C followed by a post-cure of 60  ̊C for 3 h) was followed,
+The CCTO powders were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction route by heating a stoichiometric mixture of CaCO3, TiO2 and CuO at 1000 °C for 10 h with intermediate repeated grinding [35].
+The CCTO powders were ball milled for 10 h in a planetary mill using agate container to obtain micrometer (1–7 lm) sized particles.
+For the fabrication of (PVDF/CCTO) composite, PVDF and CCTO powder were melt-mixed in a Brabender plasticorder (Model: PLE 331) for 15 min at 175 °C,
+and then hot-pressed at this temperature to obtain a sheet of 150 mm2 with 0.5 mm in thickness.
+high shear mechanical mixing at 700 rpm for 60 s followed by ultrasonication for 1 h.
+In ultrasonication technique, the required quantity of inorganic fillers are mixed to the epoxy resin under normal hand stirring
+The PMMA nanocomposites were synthesized using an adaptation of previously reported solution-based procedures.9,51,52
+and then sonication is carried out in a water bath at a frequency of 24 kHz.
+With respect to the mechanical mixing method, the particles are mixed to the epoxy resin in a high shear mechanical mixer at a speed of 700 rpm.
+Nanocomposites were fabricated at varying weight percentages of modified nanoparticles, and are named FNP-z, where F is the functionality type (PEO or S (silanol)) and z is the weight percent of nanoparticles, Table 1.
+The resulting samples were characterized by TEM, USAXS, rheology and small-angle neutron scattering: we specifically are very concerned about experimental artefacts.
+Silica particles were modified using copper(I)-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azides and terminal alkynes, known  as [3+2] cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction.
+The nanocomposite systems were produced by in situ polymerisation around the inorganic fillers.
+UV-vis absorption spectra were acquired for graft density determination,
+the epoxy resin and hardener are taken in two different beakers and they are both degassed at 40 0C for 2 h to remove trapped air bubbles and moisture.
+Hybrid organic/inorganic Preparation of CB/epoxy composite and Ag/CB/epoxy nanocomposite
+The TiO2 particles of both sizes are dried at 90 0C for 24 h.
+degassing of the polymer-particle mix was carried out at several stages during processing, before the curing of the resin-particle-hardener mix is carried out.
+To begin with, approximately 40 ml of resin is poured into the mixer immediately after the degassing process and the required quantity of fillers (based on weight fractions) is slowly dispersed into the epoxy resin with continuous hand stirring.
+The mechanical mixer is then used at 700 rpm for 1 h.
+The resin-particle mix is then degassed till the air bubbles stopped coming out of the mix (around 5 minutes due to reduced viscosity of the mixture).
+Immediately after this degassing, 7 ml of mix (required for one sample preparation) each was poured into different smaller beakers
+and they are sonicated for the desired duration.
+Then, the appropriate amount of hardener is poured into the beaker, mixed vigorously with hand for few minutes and poured into the mold.
+The mold with the composite material is again degassed (to remove the air bubbles formed during hardener mixing) till the air bubbles fully stopped coming out of the material.
+The mold is then left for curing inside an oven at 60 0C for 4 h.
+For preparing the microcomposite samples, only mechanical mixing for a duration of 120 s was used for mixing the fillers to epoxy
+Samples of 75 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness were molded
+and then they are kept under vacuum desiccation for at least 24 h before the dielectric property measurements.
+The composites were prepared by mixing nano-SiC powder with silicone resin at the appropriate ratio in a Hauschild® high speed mixer.
+Samples were compression moulded at 150  C/1h +180  C/1h.
+Prior to any electrical tests, the cured composite discs (approximately 0.5 mm in thickness) were kept in a vacuum oven at ~80 °C overnight to remove any dicumyl peroxide residue,
+and gold electrodes of 2 cm in diameter were then sputter deposited onto both surfaces of the discs.
+Decomposition and deposition of the xylene–ferrocene vapor onto the substrate was allowed to proceed for times of 100, 50 and 20 minutes [21].
+The 27μm MWNTs were wand sonicated for 30 min in order to create nanotubes of 3–5 μm in length.
+the untreated nanotubes were chemically modified to create an epoxide-terminated functionalized group, which reacts with the polycarbonate chains to create a covalent linkage.
+As-received nanotubes were put into a tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent and water bath- sonicated for 6 min.
+This was done to improve the dispersion of the MWNT bundles, which would allow better infiltration of the surface modification process to individual nanotubes.
+MWNT-filled polycarbonate composites were prepared using a precipitation method.
+Bisphenol A polycarbonate (PC) was dried for 2 h under vacuum at 125 C to remove any residual moisture
+and then dissolved in THF by water bath sonication for 30 min.
+the as-received nanotubes underwent the same total sonication time as the functionalized nanotubes.
+The sonicated MWNT dispersion and PC solution were mixed and stirred with a magnetic stirrer for 3 min.
+The mixture was poured drop-wise into methanol, which caused the composite to precipitate immediately.
+The composite material was filtered under vacuum and dried under vacuum at 60 C for 15 h.
+All samples for testing were made by compression molding of 0.3 g of material per sample in a Carver press in a dog bone mold.
+A temperature of 250 C and pressure of 1 ton for 5 min were the conditions used to produce samples from the gage section of a dog bone mold with dimensions: 8 mm   4 mm   1.5 mm (length   width   thickness).
+The samples were annealed at 200 C for 1 h and slowly cooled to room temperature to remove processing history differences between the samples.
+approximately 1 mm of both types of composites was dissolved in THF for 48 h.
+The grip regions of both types of composites were placed on a TEM grid
+The MWCNTs used here were produced by thermal chemical vapor deposition of a xylene–ferrocene feedstock at 700 °C in a quartz tube furnace [45].
+Briefly, the surface-modified nanotubes were oxidized and then reacted with a hydroxyl-terminated epoxide molecule.
+These covalently attached functional groups were then allowed to react with the polycarbonate matrix chains by transesterification [47,48] to cause tethering of polycarbonate chains onto the outer walls of the MWCNT.
+MWCNT-reinforced PC samples were prepared by dispersing the MWCNTs in tetrahydrofuran by bath ultrasonication in a water ice bath (Fisher Scientific FS60) for 3 h.
+PC pellets were dried at 125 °C for 2 h, followed by dissolution in tetrahydrofuran.
+The MWCNT dispersion and the PC solution were then mixed together and ultra-sonicated for 1 more hour.
+The mixture was then dropped into stirred methanol causing precipitation of the composite material.
+The composite material was dried at 70 °C under vacuum for 16 h.
+dogbone samples were prepared using a DACA mini-injection molding machine.
+The barrel temperature was 205 °C and the mold temperature was 140 °C, and the injection pressure was 862 kPa.
+The dimensions of the samples were 25.0 mm · 4.0 mm · 1.5 mm (length · width · thickness).
+Pure PC samples were fabricated using an identical procedure as an experimental control.
+Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) verified that stress crystallization was not induced within the samples as noted by the absence of a melting endotherm.
+In addition, MWNTs were removed from the bulk polymer matrix via filtration through PTFE (100 lm pore size) using THF as a solvent.
+After removal from the nanocomposite these MWNTs where still found to be coated by a polymer sheathing, at which time they were again analyzed by DSC to examine whether polymer crystallization was present at the MWNTs surface.
+The latex was first stirred with the stable aqueous suspensions of nanofillers.
+The mixture was either cast in an aluminum mold with a teflon coating and put in a drying oven at 35 °C under vacuum for five days to allow slow water evaporation and film formation (i.e. polymer particles coalescence).
+For the second process used to elaborate composites, the suspension mixture was first freeze-dried to allow water sublimation,
+This powder was then pressed at 100 °C for 5 min under 1 MPa after 45 min of thermal stabilization without pressure.
+Before mixing, PP and CaCO3 nanoparticles were dried in an oven at 120 VC for 1 h and then cooled down to room temperature.
+The materials were stored in a desiccator prior to processing.
+Blending was carried out in a Haake mixer.
+The mixing temperature was 180 VC and the rotor speed was 60 rpm.
+The PP and anti-oxidant were mixed for 1 min before the CaCO3 was added slowly over a period of 10 min.
+When all the materials were added into the mixing chamber, the materials were further mixed for a ®xed period of time.
+After mixing, the compound was cut into small pieces.
+All the mixture components, i.e. the resin, nanoparticle masterbatch, hardener, flexibilizer and accelerator, were first preheated to 55 °C.
+All the components were then added one after another to the neat resin.
+When a component was added to the mixture, the latter was mixed for 15 minutes, so that the total mixing time for the five- component mixture was 60 minutes.
+Degassing was performed at 300 Pa for several minutes until the new gas bubbles formed on the mixture surface dissipated.
+Epoxy resin and hardener (0.7 g together) were mixed in a 1 : 1 weight ratio in the solvent.
+Casting was performed slowly into preheated moulds (80 oC)
+and the cast samples were degassed again to remove any gas bubbles formed during casting.
+The samples were cured and postcured
+The silver precursor was dissolved in propylene carbonate (1:1 weight ratio).
+and then the films were exposed to UV light by using a fusion lamp with a light intensity on the surface of the sample of about 150 mW   cm 2 (measured by EIT photometer) and a belt speed of 6 m   min 1.
+Cured tack-free films of about 100 mm were obtained
+epoxy resin and a hardener (HMPA), if added, were mixed in a 1:1 weight ratio in acetonitrile solvent using magnetic stirring.
+Then the reducing agent was dissolved in a weight equivalent to 1.2 times the stoichiometric requirement (each mole of silver nitrate requires a half mole of hydroquinone for reduction).
+Finally, silvernitrate was dissolved in a ratio measured with respect to the amount of epoxy used.
+If any other protecting agent or modifier is used, it is added before the silver nitrate addition step (final step).
+The formulation was mixed at each step using magnetic stirring.
+After this the solvent was evaporated for 30 min using a rotary evaporator
+while the water bath beneath was maintained at 40°C.
+and after being allowed to return to room temperature the catalyst is finally added.
+Glucose (4 g) was dissolved and stirred to form a clear solution either with or without poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP, molecular weight: 1 300 000, Alfa Aesar)
+followed by the addition of 0.5 mL, 0.1 M AgNO3.
+The solution was then transferred and sealed in a 40 mL Teflon-sealed autoclave
+The autoclave was kept at 180 °C for 3–4 h and cooled in air naturally.
+The final products were separated from the reaction medium by centrifuging and rinsed in three cycles of centrifuging/washing/redispersion in deionized water, alcohol, and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME)
+The particles were dispersed in EGME after rinsing.
+Certain amount of Ag@C nanoparticles were ultrasonicated in EGME to form a stable colloid,
+followed by the addition of resin, and stirring for 10–15 min.
+Afterwards, a certain amount of hardener was added and the mixture was stirred for another 10 min.
+Finally, an appropriate amount of the resultant solution mixture was dropped on the substrates to obtain film of about 80 lm in thickness.
+The nanocomposite films were dried to thoroughly evaporate the solvent and cure the epoxy matrix.
+Silica particles were prepared by the hydrolysis and condensation of TEOS in absolute ethanol (EtOH) with ammonia (NH3) as the base catalysis [14].
+First, a solution containing appropriate quantities of absolute ethanol, ammonia and deionized water was stirred for 5min to ensure complete mixing.
+Then a proper amount of TEOS was added slowly to the above solution
+and the reaction proceeded at ambient temperature for 24h.
+Thereafter the colloidal solution was separated by high-speed centrifuge (Hitachi Himac CR 22 G),
+and the silica particles were washed by absolute ethanol three times before characterization.
+5 g deionized water, 95 g ethanol and 10 g nanosilica were mixed ultra- sonically for 30 min.
+The pH value was adjusted to around 4 by for- mic acid.
+The mixture was refluxed at about 90 C for 6 h.
+After cooling down, the modified nanosilica colloidal solution was obtained.
+Monomer acrylamide was dissolved in 100 ml (70:30) water=ethanol.
+The constituents were well-mixed using magnetic stirring,
+the samples were then puri- fied and poured in Petri dishes and shaped for further measurements.
+The surfaces of the TiO2 nanoparticles were then modified by refluxing in aqueous CO2-free barium hydroxide solution for 2h under Ar atmosphere
+Thin films of the nanocomposites were fabricated by casting DMF solution of the TiO2 nanoparticles and P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE) followed by drying at 120 8C for 8h in vacuo.
+The film was further meltpressed at 160 8C under 3000 psi to remove voids and residual solvent.
+Gold electrodes with a typical thickness of 60 nm were sputtered on both sides of the films for the electrical measurements.
+The S-SEBS solutions were mixed with different concentrations of precursors, where the molar ratio between SO3H groups of S-SEBS and Ti was 100:2, 4, 16, and 32.
+The solution was vigorously stirred for 30 min.
+The Ti organometallic complexes preferentially attached to the sulfonated styrene blocks.
+A solid film was formed by static casting over a period of one week.
+The Ti organometallic complexes attached to the SO3H groups were gradually hydrolyzed and formed titanium oxide nanoparticles within the sulfonated styrene blocks.
+he procedure was the same as for synthesis of S-SEBS templated TiO2, except that both vinyltrimethoxysilane cross- linker and TiO2 precursors were simultaneously added to S-SEBS polymer solutions.
+The solution was vigorously stirred for 30 min, then poured into a Teflon boat.
+A solid film was formed by static casting over a period of one week.
+The resulting films were placed in an oven for heat-treatment at 150  C for 24 h and exposed to UV light (260e320 nm) for 20 min at 150  C.
+dynamic vacuum drying of all the micro and nano-particles was carried out at 195 oC for 24 h immediately prior to compounding
+(except the vinylsilane-treated particulates which were dried at 160 oC).
+The composite was mixed with a melt mixer above the melting temperature of the polymer.
+(i) a sample with multiple recesses was used for breakdown strength measurements,
+(ii) laminar samples were used for dielectric spectroscopy and pulsed electroacoustic analysis (PEA),
+(iii) a cylindrical block with an embedded electrolytically-etched tungsten electrode which created divergent field geometry was used for voltage endurance evaluations.
+All samples were created by hot pressing, and then allowed to cool slowly to room temperature, keeping the pressure constant.
+The samples were post-cured under vacuum.
+The degree of crystallinity and melting temperature of the processed samples were measured using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).
+The samples were heated from room temperature (25 oC) to 150 oC at a rate of 10 oC per minute.
+The temperature was held constant at 150 oC for 5 minutes before the sample was cooled to room temperature at a rate of 10 oC per minute.
+This cycle was repeated twice for each sample and the second peak was considered for calculation [19].
+A set of four specimens was used for each type of formulation,
+and the right tangential method was used to determine the crystallinity of the samples.
+Glass transition temperature was measured using a Rheometric Scientific DMTA (Model-V).
+MWNTs were first treated with concentrated nitric acid to remove any amorphous carbon on the tube walls and to introduce carboxyl groups to the surface [23].
+In a typical experiment, 100 mg of MWNT was immersed in 200 mL of concentrated nitric acid inside a 250 mL round bottom flask.
+A water-cooled condenser was attached to the flask
+and the mixture was heated to maintain boiling in a refluxing system for 2 h.
+The mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature
+and then the oxidized MWNTs were washed by dispersing in water and filtering with poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) membranes with 0.4 mm pore size multiple times.
+Finally, the oxidized MWNTs were dispersed in water and freezedried.
+MWNTs of two different aspect ratios were oxidized,
+Solution-mixing method was chosen to prepare the MWNT/ PMMA nanocomposites because it leads to good dispersion of MWNTs and does not cause significant damage to the MWNTs.
+In a typical experiment, 2 g of PMMA was dissolved in 100 mL THF by bath sonication for 2 h;
+20 mg of oxidized MWNT was dispersed in 50 mL anhydrous THF by water bath sonication for 6 min,
+followed by ultrasonication with a wand sonicator for 30 s.
+The MWNT/THF dispersion and the PMMA/THF solution were mixed by ultrasonicating with a wand sonicator for 1 min.
+The mixture was poured into a large quantity of ethanol stirred by a magnetic bar to facilitate precipitation.
+Control samples made of neat PMMA were also prepared.
+as-received PMMA was dissolved in THF by bath sonication for 2 h and 6 min (the same duration as the composite samples).
+Then the solution was ultrasonicated with a wand sonicator for 1 min.
+The solution was poured into a large quantity of ethanol stirred by a magnetic bar so that the PMMA precipitated out.
+The precipitates were filtered with a PTFE membrane
+and dried under vacuum at 70  C for 24 h.
+The dried nanocomposites were compounded into rectangular shapes (5.08 cm   0.635 cm   0.5 cm) with a hot press at 225  C under 19.6 kN of load and were cooled down to room temperature.
+Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to investigate the dispersion of MWNTs in PMMA.
+The samples were cut with a microtome to a thickness of 70 nm at room temperature with a diamond knife and mounted on a 200-mesh copper grid.
+Images were obtained with a Phillips CM12 using an accelerating voltage of 120 kV.
+A batch foaming process was used to make MWNT/PMMA nanocomposite foams.
+A customized supercritical CO2 foaming setup was assembled and used for foaming the mechanical testing samples.
+A tubular Micro Reactor from High Pressure Equipment Company was connected to a syringe pump.
+An insulated heating band was wrapped around the outer surface of the reactor
+and the temperature was controlled via a thermal couple inserted into the reactor for precise control.
+nanocomposites C100 and C20 and neat PMMA control samples were soaked in supercritical CO2 under varying soaking temperatures and constant pressure (17.9 MPa) for 24 h.
+After fast pressure release (w10 MPa/s), the samples were taken out of the autoclave and immersed in ice water.
+suspensions containing BaTiO3 powder, KH550 and solvent were prepared in a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) bottle.
+Ultrasonic was applied to the suspensions in order to prohibit from the agglomeration of BaTiO3 powders.
+and then EPR, curing agent and catalyst were added into the suspensions.
+The mixture solutions were grinded by using a planetary ball-milling machine for 24 h.
+Afterwards, the solution was heated to 75 °C for 1 h to evaporate the most solvent,
+then dried at 75 °C for 30 min to remove solvent residue.
+Finally, the dry mixtures were molded by hot-pressing at a temperature range of 150–160 °C
+BT-EDMAT (2.0 g, 0.042 mmol), free RAFT agent of EDMAT (5.7 mg, 0.025 mmol), DMF (6 mL), ethyl acetate (4 mL), and HFDA (2.0 g, 3.86 mmol) were added to a 25 mL round- bottom flask followed by sonication and addition of AIBN (3.8 mg, 0.023 mmol).
+This flask was then capped with a rubber plug, and the solution was deoxygenated by purging with nitrogen gas for 40 min.
+The mixture was stirred at 60 °C for 6 h under nitrogen gas protection.
+The polymerization was stopped by quenching the flask in ice water,
+and the BaTiO3 nanocomposites were obtained by centrifugation at 9000 rpm for 10 min.
+The products were redispersed in DMF, and the mixture was centrifuged;
+this cycle was repeated four times.
+The products were dried under vacuum at 60 °C for 24 h.
+P(VDF-HFP) was dissolved in DMF and stirred for 1 h at 60 °C.
+At the same time, BT- PHFDA nanoparticles were dispersed in DMF by ultrasonication with vigorous stirring for 30 min at room temperature.
+Then, the solution of P(VDF-HFP) was added into the BT-PHFDA suspension slowly,
+and the resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature for 30 min.
+The solution was subsequently heated to 90 °C and stirred for 8 h to remove the solvent.
+The obtained solid products were transferred into a vacuum oven and further dried at 80 °C for 24 h in order to remove the remaining trace of solvent,
+and the nanocomposites were subsequently molded to a disk-shaped thin film by hot-pressing at about 180 °C.
+and purified by vacuum sublimation
+N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAc) (Shanghai Chemical Reagent Company, China) and 3-amino-propyl-triethoxysilane (APTS) (Hangzhou Guibao Chemical Company, China) were distilled over powered calcium hydride under reduced pressure and stored over 4 A ̊ molecular sieves prior to use.
+A solution containing 1.0 g coupling agent of APTS in water/ethanol (5 ml/95 ml), and 40.0 g barium titanate particles were added into a flask
+Under vigorous stirring, this suspension was ultrasonicted at room temperature for 10 min
+and heated at 70 8C for 1 h.
+After centrifugation, washing with ethanol and drying in vacuum at 50 8C
+After adding the modified BaTiO3 particles into DMAc
+the mixture was vigorously stirred under ultrasonication for 4 h at room temperature giving a suspension
+Then, the above PAA solution was added into this suspension and stirred for 24 h to obtain sticky and homogenous suspension
+By casting this suspension on to a clean glass or metal slide
+evaporating DMAc at 60 8C for 10 h, and then step curing (at each temperature of 100, 200, 250 and 300 8C for 1 h, respectively)
+N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAc) was dried in P2O5 for 2 days and distilled before use.
+POSS fluoride epoxy was prepared by the placement of (HMe2SiOSiO1.5)8 (0.50 g, 0.49 mmol) in a magnetically stirred, 25-mL Schlenk flask and the addition of toluene (5 mL);
+the solution was stirred for 5 min.
+AHFPE (0.31 mL, 1.96 mmol) and then 10 drops of 2.0 mM Pt(dvs) were added.
+The mixture was stirred for 8 h at 80 8C;
+then, AGE (0.23 mL, 1.96 mmol) was added,
+and the mixture was continuously stirred for 8 h at 80 8C.
+The mixture was cooled,
+and dry, activated charcoal was added.
+After it had been stirred for 10 min, the mixture was filtered through a 0.45-lm Teflon membrane into a vial
+Removing the solvents yielded 1.05 g of an opaque, viscous liquid (90% yield).
+10.00 mmol of MDA was fed into a three-necked flask that contained 22.92 g of DMAc/10.00 g with nitrogen purging at 25 8C.
+After MDA had dissolved, 10.20 mmol of PMDA was divided into three batches and added to the flask batch by batch at intervals of 0.5 h between the batches.
+When PMDA had completely dissolved in the solution, the solution was stirred continuously for 1 h, yielding a viscous PAA solution.
+The mixture was mixed for 12 h more with a mechanical stirrer.
+Various weight percentages of OFG were added to the PAA solution, which was then stirred for 24 h at room temperature.
+The PAA solution that contained OFG was cast onto a glass slide with a doctor’s blade
+and then placed in a vacuum oven at 40 8C for 48 h before imidization.
+The PMDA–MDA–OFG mixture was imidized by the storage of the sample in an air circulation oven at 100, 150, 200, and 250 8C for 1 h and then at 300 8C for 0.5 h to ensure complete imidization.
+Firstly, the hardener component of the resin was diluted with methanol to lower its viscosity to enable better dispersion of the particles.
+Secondly, the particles were added to this solution.
+The solution was rigorously mixed using an ultrasonic sonicator until the methanol evaporated (∼8–12 h).
+Lastly, the hardener was mixed with the resin following the recommendations of the manufacturer (72 parts hardener per hundred parts resin) using a magnetic stirrer at high speed for approximately 1 h.
+The resin mixture was moulded with embedded 25.4 mm electrodes for electric measurements
+The mould was degassed for approximately 10 min
+then cured over night at room temperature and for a day at 60 ◦ C,
+The resin was fully cured after one week at room temperature as stated by the manufacturer.
+In a typical surface modification reaction, TiO2 nanoparticles were dispersed in water (distilled and deionized)
+and degassed by sonication while under aspirator-reduced pressure for 15 min.
+and stirred at reflux conditions for 24 h.
+The surface modified nanoTiO2 particles were then recovered by filtration followed by redispersion in fresh water and filtration,
+repeated four times to remove any excess and/or physisorbed ligand.
+The treated TiO2 nanoparticles were dried thoroughly in a vacuum oven before preparing composites in epoxy.
+The surface of nano BaTiO3 particles were modified as described before15 but using NPP.
+Composite films were made by first dispersing particles into polyamide resin via a ball-milling process overnight (∼16−18 h).
+A separate dispersant, the BYK-w-9010, was added only to a bare particle dispersion of TiO2/BT in polyamide as an experimental control to compare a dispersed particle composite against a self-dispersing (surface modified) particle, where the particle uses the bound surface groups to aid its dispersion.
+The ball-milled dispersion was sieved to remove the ball media into a clean, preweighed jar.
+Epoxy resin in amount stoichiometric to the amount of polyamide was added to the dispersion,
+and the uncured, liquid composite stirred for 5 min before degassing.
+Composites were allowed to initially cure overnight at room temperature in a dust-free vented cabinet,
+followed by completing the polymer matrix cross-linking process by baking in a forced-air conventional oven at 80 °C for 24 h followed by 100 °C for 6 days.
+A 6 day cure was found necessary to remove all volatiles from the film and maximize DBS.
+The resin was washed sequentially in 1 M HCl, deionized water, 1 M NaOH, and deionized water to remove metal impurities and convert the resin to Na+ form. Polystyrene (PS, 210 000 g/mol, melt flow index 7 g/10 min at 200 °C) was obtained from Scientific Polymer Products and dried for 1 h at 90 °C prior to use.
+The epoxy composites were blended using a FlakTek high speed centrifugal mixer for 10 min at 2500 rpm.
+Na-CNC crystals obtained from the University of Maine were first blended with the diamine curing agent.
+The epoxy resin was added,and the components were mixed a second time.
+For the ion exchanged crystals, the order of addition was reversed, adding epoxy resin to the crystals first.
+After all three components were combined, the mixture was degassed for 5 min under vacuum and immediately transferred to silicone molds for tensile properties (type V, ASTM D 638-02a), UV−vis transmission (22 mm diameter, 1 mm thick), and water absorption analyses (51 mm diameter × 3.2 mm thick).
+All epoxy samples were cured at room temperature for 24 h and at 80 °C for 2 h.
+First, graphite powder (3 g) was pre-oxidized by adding it to a solution of concentrated H2SO4 (12 mL), K2S2O8 (2.5 g) and P2O5 (2.5 g) and heated at 80  C for 4 h.
+The slurry was then cooled, diluted with deionized water, and filtered.
+The obtained black solid was excessively washed with deionized water to remove the residual acid and dried under ambient conditions.
+Then the preoxidized graphite was mixed with concentrated H2SO4 (120 mL). KMnO4 (15 g) powder was gradually added to the mixture and the temperature was maintained below 20  C.
+After that, the mixture was stirred at 35  C for 2 h and then diluted with deionized water (1 L).
+H2O2 (30%, 20 mL) was immediately added to the diluted slurry.
+The slurry was filtered and washed with 1 M HCl aqueous solution (1 L) and de-ionized water (1 L) in turn to remove residual metal ions and acid.
+Finally, the obtained brown solid was dialyzed against water for one week before use.
+The fRGO/PVDF and the fRGO–BT/PVDF nanocomposites were fabricated through a two-step approach.
+The desired amount of the fRGO nanosheets and BT nanoparticles were premixed in DMF through ultrasonication to form a stable homogeneous dispersion.
+The dispersion was then added into a PVDF solution.
+The mixture was further stirred for 2 h at 80  C and cast on a precleaned glass plate to form a thin film.
+After drying at 70 C for 3 days, the obtained thin films were stacked together and molded by hot-pressing at 200  C under a pressure of 15 MPa to give tablet samples with a diameter of 12 mm and a thickness of1mm.
+Compounding of these blends was carried out with a 4 g capacity DACA Micro Compounder (DACA Instruments, Goleta, USA) operating at 260 8C, 50 rpm, and a mixing time of 5min.
+Additional experiments were conducted using longer mixing times (up to 15 min) and higher mixing speeds (up to 150 rpm).
+The original PC-2NT composite was produced by diluting a masterbatch of 15 wt% MWNT in polycarbonate, supplied by Hyperion Catalysis International, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, USA), with pure PC (Iupilon E-2000, Mitsubishi Engineering Plastics) using a Haake co-rotating, intermeshing twin-screw extruder (D 1⁄4 30; L=D 1⁄4 10) as previously described [7].
+The final blends obtained after melt compounding in the DACA Micro Compounder were formed into a continuous strand using a heated cylindrical die (2 mm diameter, length 35 mm).
+The strands were placed on an aluminium plate without additional cooling or drawing.
+To 50 ml of dry dichloromethane (DCM) [2,2':5',2''-Terthiophene]-5-ethanol (0.47 g, 1.6 mmol), 5-hexynoic acid (0.20 g, 1.8 mmol) and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (16 mg, 0.13 mmol) were added.
+The solution was then cooled to 0C and flushed with nitrogen before adding N,N’-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (0.33 g, 1.6 mmol) in 10 ml of DCM drop wise over 30 min.
+The solution was allowed to warm to room temperature and react overnight.
+The resulting salts were filtered and the solvent removed under reduced pressure leaving a dark yellow solid.
+The resultant solid was then subjected to column chromatography (SiO2, CHCl3) yielding a bright yellow solid (0.54 g, 1.4 mmol) with 87% yield.
+Particles were mixed with Huntsman Araldite GY 2600; a bisphenol-A based epoxy resin using a Hauschild high shear mixer (FlackTek).
+Solvent residue was evaporated in vacuum.
+The composite resin and hardener mixture was likewise mixed in a high shear mixer and then cast into the appropriate shapes.
+In short, PHMA-b-PGMA grafted SiO2, PGMA grafted SiO2, bare SiO2 or non-grafted linear PGMA were dispersed in the epoxy (curing agent to resin ratio equaled 1:1 for all nanocomposites) by solvent mixing.
+The solvent for dispersing 80k20k (0.07) particles was THF and for dispersing the rest of the fillers was CH2Cl2.
+THF was used for preparing 80k20k (0.07) composites because it could not be well dispersed in CH2Cl2.
+After completely removing the solvent, uncured mixtures were poured in silicone molds and cured at 80  C for 10 h and 135  C for 10 h.
+Additionally, non-grafted linear PGMA polymer filled epoxy and bare SiO2 filled epoxy were used as the control in the current study.
+Tetra- hydrofuran (THF) was dried over CaH2 overnight and distilled before use.
+Glycidyl methacrylate was passed through a neutral alumina column to remove the inhibitor before use.
+Cu(I)Br (99.999%, Sigma Aldrich) was purified with acetic acid and washed with ethanol and diethyl ether three times.
+In a typical synthesis, oleic acid (10 mL), oleylamine (10 mL), cyclohexane (20 mL) and Ti(OBu)4 (1 mL) were mixed at room temperature by magnetic stirring for 5 min.
+The solution was then transferred into a pressure vessel (50 mL, Parr) at 200  C for 24 h.
+After decanting the supernatant layer, the particles were collected by precipitating in ethanol and centrifugation.
+Typically, a solution of glycidyl methacrylate (20 mL), THF (40 mL), prop-2-ynyl 4-cyano-4-(phenyl carbonothioylthio)pentanoate (100 mg), and AIBN (5 mg) was prepared in a dried Schlenk tube.
+The mixture was degassed by three freeze-pump-thaw cycles, backfilled with nitrogen, and then placed in an oil bath at 60  C for 22 h.
+The polymerization solution was quenched in ice water and precipitated in hexane.
+The polymer was recovered by centrifugation and dried under vacuum (Mn 1⁄4 40 000 g mol 1, PDI 1⁄4 1.15).
+ARG (1 g) was treated with a 4:1 v/v mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acid (50 mL) for 24 h at room temperature.
+The resulting suspension was then diluted with de-ionized water (150 mL) and filtered over a Buchner funnel.
+The remaining solid residue was washed with copious amounts of water until the filtrate was no longer acidic and then dried in an air oven at 100 8C overnight.
+This dried material was placed in a 50-mL quartz tube and the tube was heated rapidly with a propane blowtorch (Model TX9, BernzOmatic, Medina, NY) set at medium intensity while under dynamic vacuum (30 mTorr).
+EG (50 mg) was suspended in glycerol (50 mL) and the resulting suspension was placed in a 100-mL beaker surrounded by an ice-water cooled jacket and sonicated with a probe sonicator (GEX 600, 600W maximum power, Sonics and Materials, Newton, CT) for 1 h with a 13- mm replaceable titanium sonicating tip operated at 100% amplitude.
+To reduce the heat evolution during the sonication process, a pulsing sequence was also employed (10 s on, 10 s off).
+After sonication the resulting suspension was diluted with de-ionized water (50 mL) to render it less viscous, and then filtered over a Buchner funnel.
+The filtered material was washed with de-ionized water (200 mL) and ethanol (100 mL) and dried in air to constant weight ($1 day).
+For the GNP PMMA composite, the GNP particles were dispersed in tetrahydrofuran (THF) via bath sonication (Branson 3510, 335W setting, Branson Instrument, Danbury, CT) for 30 min.
+An appropriate amount of PMMA was dissolved in a minimum amount of THF (30 mL) in another vial and combined with the dispersed suspension of GNP in THF.
+Shear mixing (Silverson, Silverson Machines, MA) at 6000 rpm was then applied to the resulting mixture for 60 min in an ice bath to reduce the frictional heat produced by the shear mixer.
+The mixed dispersion was then dropped into vigorously stirred methanol (300 mL) to remove THF.
+The coagulated solid was then filtered through 10-lm PTFE filter paper (Osmonics) and dried at 80 8C in a vacuum oven for 10 h to give nanocomposite flakes.
+Composite samples for XRD and SEM analysis as well as mechanical testing were prepared by placing the dried nanocomposite flakes between two stainless steel plates with 0.1-mm- thick spacers in a Tetrahedron (San Diego, CA) hydraulic hot-press.
+The press was run at 1.75 MPa and 210 8C for 10 min before cooling to room temperature.
+the nanoparticles were melt-mixed with low density polyethylene (LDPE; DOW 681I) pellets using a torque rheometer (Haake batch mixer system 90) as described in Ref. [13].
+Non-uniform distribution of the filler in the matrix was achieved by ball milling the nanoparticles with micron-size LDPE powders obtained from Ultra Chemical Inc.
+The mixture of particles was ball milled at room temperature for 24 h so that ZnO nanoparticles were embedded in the soft surface of the LDPE particles.
+The mixtures were then hot pressed at approximately 170 °C to form a disc-shaped specimen with a diameter of 7.5 cm and a thickness of approximately 0.03 cm.
+The bisphenol-A resin was mixed with the hardener first,
+and then carbon black was added into the formulation. The mixture was premixed in an ultrasonicator for 1 hour
+and then processed in a three-roll mill for 1 hour.
+Next, the catalyst was added into the formulation, and the mixture was dispersed in the ultrsonicator for 30 minutes.
+According to the curing peak temperature, the curing condition for both polymers and their composites was set to be 150 oC for 1 hour.
+Cu(I)Br (99.999%, Sigma Aldrich) was purified with acetic acid and washed with ethanol and diethyl ether three times.
+In a typical synthesis, to a stainless steel pressure vessel (45 mL, Parr), DI water (10 mL) and triethylamine (0.5 mL) were added and homogeneously mixed.
+The organic phase was prepared by mixing the solution of toluene (20 mL), titanium butoxide (1 mL) and oleic acid (3 mL) in a separate beaker.
+Then the organic solution was poured into the pressure vessel.
+The vessel was sealed tightly and transferred into an isotemp oven at 200  C for 12 h.
+After reaction, the top transparent toluene solution was extracted by a pipette.
+The particles were precipitated with ethanol and recovered with centrifugation.
+Nanocomposite samples were prepared by solution casting.
+Freshly prepared particle solutions were mixed with solutions of the matrix polymer in anhydrous THF, in the desired weight percentages.
+The solutions were sonicated for 1 min and 30 s at 38% power with a Sonics and Materials Vibracell VCX 600 W unit using a stepped microtip and a pulse of 2.0 s ON and 0.5 s OFF.
+Sonicated solutions were cast into clean aluminum boats.
+The solvent was then driven off in a clean oven at 80 °C and later under vacuum at 120 °C for 16 h.
+The samples were peeled off and pressed into dogbone-shaped samples in a 12 tonne Carver hot press and annealed at 140 °C (PS, PMMA, P2VP) and 110 °C (PEMA) for 24 h in order to sufficiently erase thermal history and to obtain quasi-equilibrium structures.
+Keeping this in mind, only loadings of up to 8 wt % were prepared to isolate only the interfacial effects on Tg.
+CNFs were dispersed in the base epoxy systems (i.e. composites without TCP) by shear mixing in order to take advantage of the epoxy precursor viscosity in shearing apart CNF bundles.
+First, the resin was heated to  135 °C, and the hardener was slowly added while stirring until dissolved.
+The mixture was allowed to cool to  80 °C, and the appropriate amount of CNFs were hand mixed.
+The mixture was mechanically mixed using a shear mixer at 7000 rpm for 2 min, followed by degassing under 29.400 Hg of vacuum at 80 °C until all gas was removed.
+The short duration of shear mixing was used in order to minimize shortening of the CNFs [18].
+CNFs were dispersed in the toughened epoxy systems (i.e. composites with 5 phr TCP) by solution processing, as is commonly employed for composites based on epoxy with block copolymer or CNF reinforcement [6,18,22].
+First, the resin, hardener, and triblock copolymer were all dissolved in acetone in a round-bottom flask.
+The desired amounts of CNFs were suspended in acetone in 40- mL vials at a concentration of 15 mg/mL and were bath sonicated for 1 h to disperse the nanofibers.
+Following sonication, the CNF suspensions were poured into the epoxy-TCP solution, followed by 1 h of additional bath sonication.
+Then the solvent was removed by rotary evaporation, followed by degassing under 29.400 Hg of vacuum at 80 °C until all gas was removed.
+After synthesis, the PhTMS-capped silica particles were characterized using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled with an IR absorption detector.
+The PS and phenyl-capped silica NPs were each dissolved in dimethylacetamide (DMAC) or dimethylformamide (DMF) and then mixed at the appropriate ratio.
+Films were prepared by doctor blading the solution on a heated glass substrate (∼100  C) to form a film of thickness ∼10 μm.
+The NP dispersion was observed using TEM after cross-sectioning the films using a microtome.
+Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) was used to obtain the depth profiles of the NPs in the composite film using 2 MeV Heþ at 10 .
+The NP concentration in the films was measured using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
+hick films were prepared by hot pressing at ∼150  C.
+For TGA measurements, films were heated at 20  C min 1 to 400  C and then held at 400 C for 3h.
+Before use, MMA was passed through a basic alumina column to remove the inhibitor.
+Prior to use, the P(VDF-co-CTrFE) was dissolved in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) at a concentration of 10 wt % and then the solution was dropped into a great amount of methanol to obtain the precipitates.
+This dissolution−precipitation procedure was repeated three times to remove possible impurities.
+To a flask, P(VDF-CTrFE) (0.800 g), MMA (8.000 g, 0.08 mol), NMP (8 mL), and Cu(I)Cl (170 mg, 1.7 mmol) were charged with vigorous stirring until a full dissolution was attained.
+Taking advantage of a Schlenk line, the system was degassed via three pump−freeze−thaw cycles.
+Thereafter, 2,2′- bipyridine (530 mg, 3.39 mmol) dissolved in 1.0 mL of NMP was added with vigorous stirring.
+After redegassed via three pump−freeze−thaw cycles, this flask was immersed into an oil bath to perform the polymerization at 100 °C for 48 h.
+Cooled to room temperature, the reacted mixture was passed through a neutral alumina column to remove the catalyst.
+The solution was concentrated and then dropped into a great amount of cold mixture of methanol with water (10/90 vol) to afford the precipitates.
+This dissolution−precipitation procedure was repeated three times to purify the polymer.
+First, the desired amount of P(VDF-TrFE)-g-PMMA dissolved in a small amount of DMF was added to DGEBA at 80 °C with vigorous stirring until the mixture became homogeneous and transparent.
+In a vacuum oven, the mixture was held at 80 °C for 12 h to remove the majority of the solvent.
+Thereafter, equimolar 4,4′-methylene-bis(2,6-diethylaniline) with respect to DGEBA was added with vigorous stirring until the curing agent was fully dissolved.
+The ternary mixture was poured into a Teflon mold to cure at 150 °C for 3 h plus 180 °C for 2 h.
+Amide-functionalized SWNTs (a-SWNT) were prepared through carboxylic acid residues, which were introduced by chemical oxidation method, followed by direct coupling of ethylene diamine (the details of this method are described elsewhere48).
+A solution evaporation technique was used to prepare the composites.
+In this technique, first, the PMMA was dissolved in NMP.
+In another vial, SWNTs were dispersed in the same solvent (NMP) by bath sonication for 1 h, added to the polymer solution, and again bath-sonicated for 1 h to disperse the SWNT in the polymer.
+The mixture was subsequently dropped into stirred methanol to remove NMP and filtered through a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filter paper with a pore size of 10 lm.
+In the case of the functionalized tubes, to produce covalent linkages between a-SWNT and PMMA, an additional step was taken after sonication of the a-SWNT and PMMA mixture: the mixture was stirred at 60 8C for 5 h and then cooled to room temperature before continuing with the antisolvent and filtration.
+For both types of nanocomposites, the products were dried at 80 8C under vacuum for 10 h and then broken into small pieces.
+These small pieces were placed on a steel mold, covered with a steel plate, and pressed in a hydraulic hot-press at a pressure of 2000 Pa and a temperature of 210 8C for 10 min;
+they were then cooled down to room temperature.
+Different volumes of aniline (0.3–1 ml) are injected into 25 ml of TiO2 colloid under ultrasonic action
+high shear mechanical mixing at 700 rpm for 60 s followed by ultrasonication for 1 h.
+The CE resin formulations containing actual AgSbF6 content ranging from 3 to 20 wt.-%, and DMPA (2 wt.-%) were coated onto glass substrates using a wire-wound applicator,
+one with oxidized MWNT grown for 100 min (C100)
+and the second with oxidized MWNT grown for 20 min (C20).
+Four different soaking temperatures were used: 65, 85, 100 and 125  C.
+Organophosphate ligand, approximately 6−10 wt % of particle mass was mixed with a nano titania dispersion
+The received Na-CNC solutions were diluted from 6.2 wt % mass fraction to 2.1% mass fraction using deionized water and the freeze-dried powder, which was dried from a solution containing a 9% mass fraction t-butanol, was used as received.
+High density polyethylene (PE, Lupolenw 4261A, BASF AG, Germany) was blended with a PC composite containing 2 wt% MWNT (PC-2NT) to produce a full range of blend compositions.
+
+one with oxidized MWNT grown for 100 min (C100)
+and the second with oxidized MWNT grown for 20 min (C20).
+Four different soaking temperatures were used: 65, 85, 100 and 125  C.
+The received Na-CNC solutions were diluted from 6.2 wt % mass fraction to 2.1% mass fraction using deionized water and the freeze-dried powder, which was dried from a solution containing a 9% mass fraction t-butanol, was used as received.
+High density polyethylene (PE, Lupolenw 4261A, BASF AG, Germany) was blended with a PC composite containing 2 wt% MWNT (PC-2NT) to produce a full range of blend compositions.
+An additional blend using PC with 5 wt% (PC-5NT) in a PC-5NT/PE 1⁄4 45/ 55 vol.% composition was prepared at 260 8C, 150 rpm, and a mixing time of 5 min.
+After drying in vacuo at 35 °C for 24 h, the product (1.980 g) was obtained and the conversion of MMA was about 19.4%.
+Then 0.0795 g hydroquinone and 0.2046 g AgNO3 were dissolved in the mixture sequentially.
+Barium acetate, tetrabutyl titanate and acetylacetone at a molar ratio of 1 : 1 : 2 were dissolved in acetic acid and stirred to get a homogeneous barium titanate precursor sol.
+poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP, M 1⁄4 1 300 000) was added to the precursor for the control of the sol viscosity.
+The growth rate was found to be approximately 1 mm/min.
+one was grown for 20 min with an average aspect ratio of 677 (MWNT20),
+and the other was grown for 100 min with an average aspect ratio of 3334 (MWNT100).
+The injection temperature were 250VC for the polymer and 80VC for the mould.
+The suspension was then cast into films by a laboratory casting equipment (LY-150- 1, Beijing Orient Sun-Tec Company, Ltd.).
+The PMMA nanocomposites were synthesized using an adaptation of previously reported solution-based procedures.9,51,52

constituent.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,204 @@
+Aniline and ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) are purchased from E Merck (India).
+Silver nitrate (AgNO3, Guoyao Chemical Co. China) was used as the precursor of Ag.
+Ethylene glycol (Shanghai Lingfeng Chemical Co. China) was used as solvent and reducing agent.
+The BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BT, 100 nm: GC-BT-01, Shandong Guoci Functional Materials Co. China) were used as base material for deposition.
+Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF, Shanghai 3F Co. China) was chosen as the polymer matrix.
+Huntsman AralditeÒ epoxy was chosen as the thermo-setting matrix polymer,
+3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) from Gelest Inc. was chosen to functionalize the alumina nanoparticles.
+Matrix homopolymers were purchased from Polymer Laboratories (see Supplementary Table S2).
+A cycloaliphatic type epoxy resin (Shell Chemicals Co.),
+an anhydride type curing agent hexahydro-4-methylphthalic anhydride (Lindau Chemical Co.)
+and an imidazole type catalyst 1-methylimidazole (Aldrich Chemical Co.) were used.
+Silver nitrate (AgNO3) and hydroquinone (both from Aldrich Chemical Co.) were selected as a metal precursor and a reducing agent, respectively.
+Heptanoic acid (Aldrich Chemical Co.) was employed as capping agent.
+A low aggregate structure carbon black (Columbia Chemical Co.) was used.
+Acetonitrile (Alfa Aesar Chemical Co.) was chosen as the solvent
+Natural crystalline graphite flakes (80 mesh, Kuntai Graphite Co. Ltd., China) were intercalated by acid treatment (sulfuric acid and acetic acid).
+BST-COC composites were manufactured from commercial BST powders and a granular COC polymer in a HAAKE Rheocord mixer system (CG-5902 Torque Rheometer, Thermo Electron Corporation, USA)
+The molar ratio of MSA to DDA was set to 1:4.5.
+The molar ratio of MSA to silver was varied from 1:1 to 1:100.
+BaTiO3 nanoparticles were purchased from Shandong Sinocera Functional Material Company (Shandong, China).
+Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) epoxy resin (JER 828) and amine curing agent (JER 113) were purchased from Japan Epoxy Resin Co.
+Silane coupling agents (3- mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane, KBM 803; 3- aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, KBM 903 and 2-(3,4- epoxycyclohexyl) ethyltrimethoxysilane, KBM 303;) were purchased from ShinEtsu Chemical Co.
+Other chemicals such as lithium chloride (LiCl), 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid (DABA), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), triphenyl phosphite (TPP), pyridine, ninhydrin,toluene and ethanol were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.
+we investigate untreated multiwall carbon- nanotubes/poly vinylidene fluoride   MWNT/PVDF  composites with low concentrations of MWNT,
+Carbon nanotubes are selected as the conducting filler
+Polyvinylidene fluoride  PVDF  power was used as the polymer matrix.
+Silica nanoparticles (14 ( 4 nm, Nissan Chemical, 30 wt % in methyl ethyl ketone) were dispersed in tetrahydrofuran (THF) (HPLC grade, Acros Organics)
+he chemicals were purchased from China National Chemicals Corporation Ltd. if not otherwise specified.
+Polyethylene–SiO2 composites were formulated using micron and nanoscale particulates.
+The base polyethylene used for the matrix is a commercially available material used in the manufacturing of high-voltage (HV) extruded cross-linked underground cables.
+Titanium dioxide nanopowder (TiO2, P25, ≥99.5%) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
+Barium hydroxide octahydrate (Ba(OH)2·8H2O, ACS, 98%) and strontium hydroxide octahydrate (Sr(OH)2·8H2O, ACS, 99.5%) were supplied by Aladdin (Shanghai, China).
+N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC), 4-dimethyla-minopyridine (DMAP), (γ-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (γ- APS), and the RAFT agent S-1-dodecyl-S′-(α,α′-dimethyl-α′′- acetic acid) trithiocarbonate (DDMAT) were all purchased from Acros.
+Pentafluorophenyl acrylate (PFPA) was provided by Suzhou Highfine Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Suzhou, China).
+P(VDF−HFP) with 15% HFP was supplied by Solvay Plastics (Shanghai, China).
+Other chemicals or reagents were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China).
+Tritherm B981-N-42 and Tritherm B981-N-35 from Elantas PDG were used as the matrix material.
+The materials were supplied as solutions of polyamideimide resin in NMP (N- Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) solvent and contained 35 wt % nonvolatile material.
+PVDF polymer was purchased from Solvay Co., U.S.
+The 35% vol H2O2 was purchased from Beijing Ruikangte Science&Technology Co., China. The titanate coupling agent DN-101 was purchased from Nanjing Daoning Chemical Industry Co., China. N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and isopropanol were supplied by Heowns Biochem Yechnologies Co., China.
+Natural graphite powder (30 mm with purity >99.85%) was purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent co., Ltd, China.
+A epoxy resin (CY1300) along with triethylene tetramine hardener (HY956) from Huntsman.
+The ZnO particles of both nanometer and micrometer sizes are commercially available uncoated powders procured from Sigma Aldrich.
+Tritherm® B 981-N-42, a (PAI) resin, was chosen as the matrix material.
+Both untreated silica (Aerosil 200®) as well as Aerosil 200® treated with Aminopropyltriethoxysilane were evaluated as fillers.
+using the polyamic acid of benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride and 4,4 -oxybisbenzenamine  BTDA-ODA  from HD Mi- crosystems, alumina from Degussa  density of 3.97 g/cm3 and surface area of 115 m2/g , and fumed silica from Cabot  density of 2.2 g / cm3 and surface area of 337 m2 / g .
+The five materials investigated in this study were XLPE, XLPE based nanocomposites with unfunctionalized (UN) and vinyl silane (VS) functionalized silica fillers at loadings of both 5 wt% and 12.5 wt%.
+The VS silica particles were UN silica particles that were partially covered by vinyl silane groups functionalized by Polymer Valley Chemicals, Inc
+Unless otherwise specified, all chemicals were purchased from Fisher Scientific and used as received
+Colloidal silica particles (15 nm diameter) were purchased from Nissan Chemical. 2,2′- Azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) was used after recrystallization in ethanol.
+3- Aminopropyldimethylethoxysilane and dimethylmethoxy-n-octylsilane were purchased from Gelest, Inc. and used as received.
+Highly monodisperse polystyrene (Mw = 96000g/mol; PDI = 1.01), was procured from TOSOH Inc.
+The chemicals were obtained as follows: BaTiO3 nanoparticles (<100 nm, AR 99.9%, Aladdin Industrial Corporation, China),
+polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP, average Mw 50 000, K29−32, Aladdin Industrial Corporation, China),
+iron chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3·6H2O, AR 99%, Aladdin Industrial Corporation, China),
+iron sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO4·7H2O, AR 99%, Aladdin Industrial Corporation Co., China),
+ammonia solution (NH3·H2O, AR 25%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Corporation),
+ethanol (C2H6O, AR > 99.7%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Corporation),
+poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF, 3F Corporation, Shanghai, China).
+Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were grown on glass fibers from a commercial source pre-coated with a nickel iron particle catalyst in a continuous process.
+Colloidal silica was acquired from Nissan Chemical (Organo- silicasol MT-ST, 30 wt% silica in methanol, 10–15 nm diameter).
+Poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (PEO5k, average Mn 1⁄4 5000 Da), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG600, average Mn 1⁄4 600 Da), dimethyl 5-sulfoisophthalate sodium salt (DM5SIS, 98%), lithium chloride (LiCl, 99%), sodium hydride (NaH, 60% dispersion in mineral oil), butyltin hydroxide oxide hydrate (97%), tetrahydrofuran (THF, anhydrous, 99.9%), ethylene glycol (>99%), and toluene (anhydrous, 99.8%) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich.
+3-Bromopropyltrichlorosilane was purchased from Gelest, and used as received.
+The system studied is based on a Diglycidyl Ether-Bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin (Vantico CT1300) with an amine- based cross-linking agent (Vantico NY956EN).
+Microparticles from Alfa Aesar having 99.5% purity are also made with a metal based method.
+The Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), molecular weight of MW 530,000, supplied by Sigma–Aldrich was used in this work.
+Epoxy, one of the most widely used insulating materials in the electrical industry is used as the base polymer material in the present study.
+A Bisphenol-A epoxy resin (CY1300) along with hardener (HY956), supplied by Huntsman is used for the investigations.
+As for the fillers, highly pure grades of commercially available uncoated particles of TiO2 [nano-filler size ≈ 50 nm, micron filler size ≈ 0.5 μm], Al2O3 [nano-filler size ≈ 45 nm, micron filler size ≈ 50-60 μm] and ZnO [nano-filler size ≈ 45- 70 nm] are procured from Sigma Aldrich and used for the experiments.
+Lexan 121 (General Electric) was chosen for the polymer matrix.
+The solvents tetrahydrofuran and methanol (analytical grade) were purchased from Aldrich and used as received.
+MWCNT were either used as received (AR) or surface epoxide-modified (EP).
+Cellulose nanofibrils were obtained from sugar beet pulp at the Centre de Recherche sur les Macromole ́cules Ve ́ge ́tales (CER- MAV, CNRS, B.P. 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France).
+The calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CCR) were obtained from Guang Ping Nano Technology Group Ltd, Hong Kong,
+and the anti-oxidant was Irganox 1010.
+Epoxy resin, 3,4-epoxycyclohexylmethyl-30 ,40 -epoxycyclohexane- carboxylate (CE, Cytec, Belgium), silver hexafluoroantimonate (AgSbF6, Aldrich), propylene carbonate (Aldrich) and the radical photoiniatitor, 2-2 dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone (DMPA, Irgacur 651, Ciba) were used as received.
+Two types of epoxy resins were used in this study: bisphenol-A–type epoxy resin (EPON 828 from Shell Chemicals, Houston, TX) and cycloaliphatic epoxy resin (ERL 4221E from Union Carbide, subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, MI).
+and the volume percentages of BST NWs in the BST/P(VDF−HFP) films were also 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%, respectively.
+The curing agent used in this study was hexahydro-4-methylphthalic anhydride (HMPA; Aldrich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, WI).
+Catalysts or accelerators that were chosen in this case were imidazole (2E4MZ-CN) and dimethylbenzylamine (DMBA)
+Acetonitrile was the solvent of choice
+1H,1H,2H,2H- heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate (HFDA) and trifluoroethyl acrylate (TFEA) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. The γ-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (γ-APS) modified BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BT-APS) and RAFT agent S-1-ethyl-S′-(α,α′-dimethyl-α′′-acetic acid) trithiocarbon- ate (EDMAT) anchored BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BT-EDMAT) was prepared according to our previous work.
+N,N-Dimethyl formamide (DMF), ethyl acetate, tetrahydrofuran, diethyl ether, and other organic reagents or solvents were supplied by Shanghai Reagents Co. Ltd.
+Titanium acetylacetonate (TYZOR AA105) was supplied by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.
+Sulfonated [styrene-b-(ethylene-ran-butylene)-b-styrene] (S-SEBS) block copolymer solution and vinyltrimethoxysilane were purchased from Aldrich.
+Titanium acetylacetonate was selected as the precursor to form the TiO2 nanoparticles
+The material studied here is a SiO2-polyethylene composite which has been formulated utilizing micro and nano particulates.
+The base polyethylene is a commercially available material already in use in the manufacturing of high-voltage (HV) extruded cross-linked underground cables.
+Some untreated nanosilica was surface-modified with triethoxyvinylsilane.
+Poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, was chosen as the composite matrix polymer
+Commercial grade PMMA (Plexiglas V920-100) was kindly donated by Altuglas International.
+Glycidyl phenyl ether (GPE) and trihexylamine were purchased from Acros Organics.
+Tetrahydrofuran (THF) and concentrated nitric acid (HNO3, 70%) were purchased from SigmaeAldrich,
+and ethyl alcohol was purchased from Fisher Scientific.
+Barium titanate (BaTiO3) was chosen as ceramic filler because it was widely used as ferroelectric material with high dielectric permittivity
+two kinds of BaTiO3 powers (0.1 lm and 0.7 lm, which are denoted as BT-01 and BT-07 respectively) were from Guoteng electronic ceramic company.
+The epoxy resin (EPR), bisphenol-A epoxy resin (DER661 from Dow chemical) with a dielectric permittivity of 3.7, was chosen as polymer matrix.
+silane coupling agent (KH550) and phosphated ester (BYK-9010) dispersant were used as surface treatment agents
+The amount of KH550 and BYK-9010 was 1.0 wt% in comparison with the BaTiO3 powders used.
+Meth-yltetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MeTHPA, from Aldrich) that was often used during the preparation of EPR-type electronic materials was chosen as a harder in 10/4 (EPR/MeTHPA) weight ratio.
+The catalyst was 2-ethyl-4- methyl-imidazole (2,4-EMI), its concentration is about 1.0 wt% in comparison to the content of EPR for all composites.
+Pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 4,40-oxydianiline (ODA) were obtained from Shanghai Chemical Reagent Company (China)
+Barium titanate (BaTiO3) with average diameter in 100nm was purchased from Hebei Xiongwei Ceramic Materials Company (China), and was used as received.
+Pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 4,40 -methylenedianiline (MDA) were purchased from TCI (Tokyo, Japan) and used as received.
+Octakis (dimethylsilyloxy)silsesquioxane [(HMe2SiOSiO1.5)8] and platinum 1,3-divinyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane [Pt(dvs)] were purchased from Aldrich (United States) and used as received.
+Allyl 1,1,2,3,3,3-hexafluoropropyl ether (AHFPE) was obtained from Lancaster (United States) and used as received.
+Allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) was obtained from Acros (Belgium) and used as received.
+The systems studied here are composed of metal-oxide particles and a commercial two component bisphenol-A based epoxy resin (Araldite® CY 5808 US and Hardener HY 5808 US), supplied by Huntsman Inc., USA.
+Nano-sized BTO and CCTO particles were received from nGimatTM Co., USA.
+Methyl(triphenyl)phosphonium bromide (MePh3PBr, 98%) and 1,2,3-trimethylimidazolium methylsulfate (Me3ImMeSO4, 95%) were obtained from Alfa Aesar.
+1-Hexadecyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride (HdMe2ImCl) was obtained from Merck; 1-hexyl-2,3- dimethylimidazolium chloride (HxMe2ImCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH, 98.5%) were obtained from Acros Organics, and ammmonium hydroxide (NH4OH, ACS Plus grade) and hydrochloric acid (HCl, ACS Plus grade) were obtained from Fisher Scientific.
+Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA, >99%) and poly- (propylether)diamine (JA230, 230 g/mol) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich.
+Deionized water (>18.2 MΩ) was collected from an ELGA LabWater PURELAB flex 2-stage water purification system.
+Na- CNCs in solution form and as a freeze-dried product were obtained from the University of Maine.
+Dowex 50W-X2, 50−100 mesh, H+ form cation exchange resin was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich.
+PVDF powder (FR903) with the melt flow rate of 2 g per 10 min was purchased from Shanghai 3F New Material Co. Ltd.
+In this process, the content of BaTiO3 in the composite was controlled by the portion ratio of BaTiO3 and PAA.
+Graphite powder (GP, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd) with a size of 300–400 mesh was sieved prior to use.
+The epoxy matrix was an anhydride cured diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA).
+The DGEBA epoxy resin (Araldite F), the anhydride curing agent (Aradur HY 905) and benzyldimethylamine catalyst (DY 062), were purchased from Huntsman Corporation.
+Titanium(IV) butoxide (97%, Aldrich), oleic acid (90%, Aldrich), oleylamine (70%, Aldrich) and cyclohexane (99%, Aldrich) were used for the synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
+Azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was purchased from Sigma Aldrich and recrystallized from ethanol before use.
+N,N,N0 ,N0 0 ,N0 0 -Pentam- ethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) was obtained from Acros and used as received.
+Unless otherwise specified, all chemicals were purchased from Acros and used as received.
+Epoxy resin (301–1) was purchased from Epoxy Technology.
+Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (MW 1⁄4 350,000 a.m., atactic, PDI 1⁄4 2.1) was obtained from Polysciences, Inc. (Warrington, PA) and used as received.
+Graphite flakes (Flake 1), referred to as ‘‘as received graphite’’ (ARG), was generously donated from Asbury Carbons (Asbury, NJ) and used as received.
+All reagents and solvents for composite synthesis were purchased from Fisher Scientific International(Hanover Park, IL) and used as received.
+ZnO nanoparticles were donated by Nanophase Technologies Corporation,
+A bisphenol-A type epoxy resin (from Aldrich Chemical Company), an anhydride hardener (MHHPA, from Lindau Chemical Company), and an imidazole catalyst (2E4MZ-CN, from Shikoku Ltd.) were used as the polymer matrix in this study.
+All the chemicals were used as received.
+This particular grade of epoxy was chosen since they do not contain any pre-added fillers.
+For comparison, silicone (HIPEC@Q1-4939, from Dow Corning Incorporation) was also used as the polymer matrix for the dielectric composites because of its extremely low (dissipationfactor.
+The carbon blacks studied were CBC1, CBC12,CBD3,CBD4,CBM5,aCnBdM6.
+Titanium (IV) butoxide (97%, Sigma Aldrich), oleic acid (90%, Sigma Aldrich), triethylamine (70%, Aldrich) and toluene (99.5%, Sigma Aldrich) were used for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles.
+N,N,N0 ,N00 ,N00 -Pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) was obtained from Acros Organics and used as received.
+Epoxy 301-1 (two parts kit) was purchased from Epoxy Technology.
+Part A is the epoxy resin (bisphenol-A diglycidyl ether) with a molecular weight around 340 g mol 1 and part B is the cross-linking agent (triethyl-1, 6 hexanediamine).
+Monofunctional siloxanes, octyldimethylmethoxysi- lane (ODMMS: CH3−(CH2)7−Si(CH3)2−O−CH3), chloropropyldi- methylethoxysilane (CPDMES: Cl−C3H6−Si(CH3)2−O−C2H5), and aminopropyldimethylethoxysilane (APDMES: NH2−C3H6−Si- (CH3)2−O−C2H5) were procured from Gelest Inc. and used as received.
+Matrix polymers polystyrene (Mw = 230 000 g/mol) and poly(methyl methcrylate) (Mw = 100000 g/mol) were procured from Sigma- Aldrich.
+Poly(2-vinylpyridine) (Mw ∼ 200 000 g/mol) and poly(ethyl methcrylate) (Mw ∼ 200 000 g/mol) were procured from Scientific Polymer Products.
+HPLC grade anhydrous THF, purchased from Fisher Scientific and anhydrous Toluene, purchased from Sigma- Aldrich were used without further purification.
+Hexanes used in extracting modified particles were procured from Mallinckrodt Chemicals.
+Two inch silicon wafers with a 200 nm thick thermally grown oxide layer were procured from Silicon Quest Inc.
+The 14 ± 4 nm colloidal silica particles in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK-ST) were graciously supplied by Nissan Inc.
+High-purity formamide and diiodomethane used in contact angle analysis were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
+The ‘‘base’’ system consisted of a high-viscosity tetrafunctional resin (tetraglycidyl 4,40 -diaminodiphenyl methane, Araldite MY721, Huntsman) cured with a diamine hardener (diam- inodiphenyl sulfone, DDS, Aradur 976, Huntsman) at a 100:44 ratio by weight, as recommended by the manufacturer.
+Carbon nanofibers (GANF1, Grupo Antolín Ingeniería) produced by Ni-catalyzed carbon vapor deposition with 20–200 nm diameters, 1–6 lm lengths, and  35:1 aspect ratio were used as received [25].
+Polystyrene (Mw = 265 000 g mol 1, polydispersity, PDI = 2.45) (PS) with phenyl-capped silica nanoparticles (NPs) is used as a matrix.
+Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) was supplied by Shanghai Resin Co., China;
+Methyl methacrylate (MMA), copper(I) chloride (CuCl), 4,4′-methylene-bis(3-chloro-2,6- diethylaniline) (MCDEA), and 2,2′-bipyridine were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Co., Shanghai, China.
+Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-chlorotrifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-CTrFE)) was supplied by Solvay Co., China,
+Organic solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and N,N′-dimethylformamide (DMF) were of chemically pure grade, obtained from Shanghai Reagent Co., China.
+Purified HiPCO SWNTs (Bucky Pearls) used were supplied by Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. (CNI, Houston, TX).
+Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with a molecular weight of 350,000 was purchased from Polysciences (Warrington, PA).
+Solvents N-methyl pyrroloidinone (NMP) and methanol were supplied by Fisher Scientific (Honnover Park, IL).
+POCl3 (99.99%) and NaN3 (Sigma Aldrich) and 11 bromo-1- undecanol (Acros) were used for synthesis of azido-phosphate.
+This colloid sol is used to prepare the nanocomposites.
+The volume contents of GNPs were employed in the range from 0.270 to 2.703 vol.%.
+Nanocomposites with four different NP loadings, namely 0.5, 1, 5, and 15 mass % of the silica core, respectively, were cast for each matrix molecular mass (a total of eight distinct state points).
+The nanosilica was either used untreated or was commercially surface-modified with triethoxyvinylsilane (TES), n-(2-aminoethyl) 3-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane (AEAPS), or hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS).
+All the composites were loaded with 5 wt% of nanoparticles.
+The volume percentages of BST NWs in the PPFPA@BST/P(VDF−HFP) nanocomposites were 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%.
+Masterbatches of high particle loading were made first (8 wt% silica or 16 wt% alumina).
+Nanocomposites were made with 5 and 10 weight % nanoparticles,
+Nanoparticles from Nanophase having a purity better than 99.5% are made by the metal vapour method.
+The epoxy resin used in the study is an anhydride curing cycloaliphatic epoxy resin filled with 20% of nanosized silica filler and added flexibilizer.
+the coupling agent modified BaTiO3 particles were obtained
+the polyimide/BaTiO3 composite was obtained.
+The final PAA content in DMAc was 11 wt %.
+1 8.5 and  2 3000 are used as the dielectric constants of the PVDF matrix and BaTiO3 ceramic particles, respectively; and fBaTiO is the volume fraction of the BaTiO3 particles.
+The anhydride curing agent is a mixture of 60e72% of 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic anhydride, 4e10% cis-1,2,3,6-tetrahyrophthalic anhydride, and 4e10% phthalic anhydride.
+The resin to curing agent mass ratio is 1:1 for stoichiometric curing.
+Loadings of (1.0 6 0.03), (2.0 6 0.06), and (5.0 6 0.06) wt % nanofiller were used in the composites.
+POCl3 (99.99%) and NaN3 (Sigma Aldrich) and 11 bromo-1-undecanol (Acros) were used for synthesis of azido-phosphate.
+CNFs were incorporated at 0, 1, and 3 phr (0, 0.69, and 2.0 wt.%) in the base system and 0 and 1 phr (0 and 0.67 wt.%) in the toughened system, as summarized in Table 1.
+Using densities of 1.099 g cm 3 for PS and 2.113 g cm 3 for NPs, the volume fractions of NP (φNP) in PS are 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5.
+APS is used as received.
+This second type of nanocomposite materials is referred as FP materials
+The composites used in this study are 1 wt % (0.5 vol %) of (i) unmodified SWNT and (ii) a-SWNT.
+The mixing ratio of epoxy resin to hardener was 1:1 by weight.
+The weight ratios of epoxy, curing agent and accelerator were 100, 70, and 1, respectively.
+For the inorganic oMMT and BT phases, commercial available materials were used: Nanomer I30E MMT  Nanocor, IL  with cation exchange capacity of about 1.4 meq/g and an organic loading of octadecyl-ammonium surfactant of about 30 wt %; BaTiO3 powder  hydrothermal BT-8, Cabot Performance Materials, Boyertown, PA  having a Ba/Ti ratio of 0.998 and a median particle size of 0.15  m.
+A pure 800-1,200 cSt low viscosity polydimethylsiloxane (trimethylsiloxy terminated, vinylmethylsiloxane (0.8-1.2 mole%)-dimethylsiloxane (99.2-98.8 mole%) copolymer) from Gelest Inc. was used as the matrix silicone resin.
+1wt.% dicumyl peroxide was employed as the silicone rubber crosslinking agent.
+The volume ratio of the THF:methanol was 1:5.
+MWNTs with varying lengths but similar diameters (w30 nm) were obtained by controlling the growth time.
+All nanocomposites contained 1% (by weight) MWNT.
+The volume ratio of THF to ethanol was 1:5.
+Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropylene) (P(VDF- HFP)) with 15% HFP was purchased from Solvay Plastics.
+BaTiO3 nanoparticles (the average diameter was 100 nm characterized with transmission electron microscopy) were supplied by the Shandong Sinocera Functional Material Company, China.
+Titanium dioxide, anatase in structure, of average particle size 32 nm and surface area of 45 m2·g−1 was obtained from Alfa Aesar.
+Barium titanate of average particle size 30−50 nm and 14 m2·g−1 average surface area was obtained from Sigma Aldrich.
+Two high-performance epoxy systems were used as the matrix phase in CFRPs.
+APS is used as received.
+The final product was denoted as BT-OH.
+The fabrication of the epoxy/BaTiO3 nanocomposites process is based on a previously reported process and includes two stages, which are shown in Figures 2 and 3.
+Among these reagents, PFPA monomer was passed through a basic alumina column before use, and the others were used as received except for special notes.
+The fabrication of the epoxy/BaTiO3 nanocomposites process is based on a previously reported process and includes two stages [28, 29], which are shown in Figures 2 and 3.
+Among these reagents, PFPA monomer was passed through a basic alumina column before use, and the others were used as received except for special notes.
+This second type of nanocomposite materials is referred as FP materials
+The typical procedures for the preparation of P(VDF-HFP)/BT-PHFDA nanocomposite films were carried out as follows.
+All the nanocomposites contain 50 vol% BaTiO3 nanoparticles.
+The BaTiO3 nanoparticles functionalized by KBM-303, KBM-803 and KBM-903 are denoted as BT-EP, BT-SH and BT-NH, respectively.

property.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+NanoTekÒ aluminum oxide (Al2O3) was purchased from Nanophase Technologies Corporation, with an average particle size of 45 nm (determined from specific surface area).
+The graft molecular weights and graft densities (0.01, 0.05 and 0.1chains nm−2 corresponding to 6, 37 and 74 chains per particle) are listed in Supplementary Table S1.
+because of its low boiling point (82 uC) and capability of dissolving all other components.
+The COC was Topas® 8007S04 (Ticona GmbH, Germany) with a density of 1.02g/cm3 and a melting temperature of 190–250◦C.
+The nanosize Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 pow- der (Sigma–Aldrich Chemie GmbH, Germany) had a fired density of 4.9 g/cm3
+TEM image and nanoparticle-size histogram (Figure 1) reveal a spherical shape and an average size of 110 nm.
+due to their large aspect ratio and unique physical properties, in particular electrical and mechanical.
+at critical concentration, the thermal conductivity of untreated carbon nanotubes composites increases significantly.
+The final samples with a disk-shape are 12 mm in diameter and around 1 mm thick.
+and their grain sizes are about 1 and 0.2  m, respectively.
+the dielectric constant increases with the volume fraction of BaTiO3.
+AEAPS and HMDS are both polar molecules creating an incompatible interface with the XLPE and possibly causing scattering or charge trapping.
+TES is non-polar and provides an opportunity for covalent bonding (and thus a strong interface) with the matrix.
+The thickness of the final films was about 30–60 mm.
+The thickness of the films was around 30 μm.
+The thickness of all the films was controlled in the range of 25−30 μm.
+The thickness of the nanocomposite films were about 50  m for the particle-free PI films as well as for the 5- and 10-vol % alumina contain- ing films and about 180  m for the 15- and 20-vol % alu- mina containing films.
+PP homopolymer (PD 403, melt index   1.5 g at 230 VC and 2.16 kg) with density 1.04 kg/l was provided by Montell, USA.
+The thickness of the composite film was 25–50 mm.
+Desai et al.14 found by MD simulations on Kremer−Grest spring models of polymer melts that the diffusion constant of polymer molecules in repulsive systems showed an initial upward trend followed by a downward trend at particle loadings of greater than 4 vol % (∼8 wt % in silica-filled systems) due to spatial constraints to the movement of the polymer molecule.
+The glass transition temperature of the neat epoxy sample was 82 °C and that of the composite sample was 148 °C, as obtained from Differential Scanning Calorimetry measurements.
+and the average particle size was determined to be approximately 49 nm from TEM observation.
+The two nanofillers were Aerosil 200 (amorphous silica from Degussa) and aluminum oxide (NanoTek from Alfa Aesar) with reported particle diameters of 12 and 40-50 nm respectively.
+BT nanoparticles with an average diameter of about 100 nm (see Supporting Information Figure S1) were purchased from Beijing Dk Nano Technology Co., China.
+The thickness of the films was 10−20 μm. 
+The average particle size (APS) of the nanoparticles is around 65 nm whereas for the micrometer sized particles, it is 0.5 μm.
+The final samples with a disk shape were 12 mm in diameter and around 1 mm in thickness.
+Aerosil 200® has an average particle size of 12 nm.
+One of the advantages of this particular epoxy resin is that it doesn’t contain any fillers and it has a low initial viscosity.
+The UN silica particles were Degussa Aerosil 200TM with a nominal diameter of 12 nm
+The SiC powder filler used in this study was 50 nm in diameter and of beta phase.
+The as-received multiwall nanotubes (ARNTs) were grown with a mean diameter of 31 nm (standard deviation of 5 nm) and lengths of 177 μm, 76μm, and 27μm.
+The mean diameter of the MWCNTs was 31 nm, with a relatively broad distribution.
+Lexan 121 has a melt flow index of 17.5, tensile yield stress of 61 MPa, and an elongation to break of 125%.
+and EP-MWCNT concentration of 5 wt%.
+The nanosized filler (Evonik Nanoresins, Geesthacht, Germany) particles are spherically shaped with an average diameter of 15-25 nm and a density of 1.6 g·cm-3, supplied as a 40%wt master batch (E600), with unknown surface treatment.
+The epoxy equivalent weight (EEW) of the resin and curing agent is between 187 and 192 g/mol.
+The selected flexibilizer was a low viscosity polyglycol.
+These two types of epoxy resins are commonly used in the field of underfill applications because of their low viscosity and low ion contamination.
+The epoxy equivalent weight (EEW) of ERL 4221 was 134 g/mol, and the EEWs of EPON 8281 and EPON 828 are 187 and 188 g/mol, respectively.
+The molecular weight of HMPA was 168.2 g/mol and its purity was more than 97%.
+because, from earlier studies, it was found that the curing peak temperatures are around 150°C.
+because of its low boiling point (82°C) and because it can dissolve all the components.
+The addition of PVP reduces the thickness and conductivity of the shells of the Ag@C particles compared with those particles without PVP in their shells
+Then an amount of ethyltriethoxysilicate (ETES) as coupling agent, equivalent to 0.5wt% relative to the silica, was added to the mixture.
+the surface-modified TiO2 nanoparticles can be dispersed in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) with an average aggregation size of  60 nm and an overall size below 100 nm.
+The absolute weight-average molecular weight of the polymer, determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) equipped with light scattering detectors in DMF, is  240 kDa with a polydispersity of 3.40.
+The molecular weight of the S-SEBS block co-polymer was 80,000 g/mol consisting 29 wt% styrene blocks and 59.7 mol% of styrene blocks sulfonated.
+The molar ratio of crosslinker to SO3H groups within the copolymer was kept at 2.5 while the molar percentage of Ti/SO3H varied from 2 to 32.
+These additives are non-ionic and do not contribute to the base polymer conductivity.
+Similarly, the films prepared with silica had a thickness of 50  m for filler content between 2 and 15 vol %.
+The samples meant for electrical testing were metallized to a thickness of ~150 Å by sputtering gold.
+The weight of the sample for each experiment was approximately 5 mg.
+whereas the vinylsilane-treated nanocomposite has ~ 33% higher crystallinity than the other composites.
+Glass transition temperature measured from a mechanical loss peak and mechanical loss factor [20] shows that the glass transition temperature for nanocomposites is ~ 5 oC higher than base resin.
+Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of MWNTs indicated that there was less than 4.3% (by weight) catalyst in the samples.
+because of its outstanding chemico-physical properties  and relatively high affinity for CO2.
+Their particle sizes and other physical parameters that were acquired at room temperature were summarized in Table 1.
+It is in a solid state at room temperature and can be dissolved in acetone.
+The nanocrystals had an average diameter of 6 nm and average length of 130 nm.38
+The tensile properties, Tg and curing enthalpy of the epoxy matrix were measured to be insensitive to this range of anhydride to epoxide number ratios.
+The cured network results in an exceptionally high crosslink density and thus a low molecular weight between crosslinks (Mc   175 g/mol).
+The typical thickness of the films in this work is around 100−150 μm.
+The planar samples used for dielectric spectroscopy tests and PEA tests have a typical thickness of 0.15 mm and 0.5 mm, respectively.
+The triblock copolymer molecular weight is 36 kg/mol with 18 kg/mol midblocks.
+The particle diameter and polydispersity were measured by dynamic light scattering (lognormal median = 28.7 nm, σ = 0.147), small angle x-ray scattering (lognormal median = 28.6 nm, σ = 0.115), and TEM (Gaussian median = 26.3 nm, σ = 0.159, N = 349).
+The coverage of PhTMS was found to be 1.5 molecules nm 2.
+it has a quoted epoxy equivalence of 177 g·mol−1.
+The GPC measurement showed that P(VDF- CTrFE) had a molecular weight of Mn = 223 000 Da with Mw/ Mn = 1.16.
+The anhydride curing agent is a mixture of 60e72% of 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic anhydride, 4e10% cis-1,2,3,6-tetrahyrophthalic anhydride, and 4e10% phthalic anhydride.
+The epoxy equivalent weight (EEW) of the resin and curing agent is between 187 and 192 g/mol.
+The glass transition temperature (Tg) and molecular weight between crosslinks (Me) of the stoichiometrically cured neat epoxy were measured to be 112  C and 312 g/mol [14].
+Thicknesses of the resulting composite films were around 0.10 0.15 mm.
+The thickness of the resulting composite film was 0.12 mm.
+BT nanoparticles are commercial products with an average diameter of 100 nm and were used as received without any further treatment.
+

unrelated.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+The preparation of the xGnPs was described in the main text.
+as described by Arbatti et al.
+to reduce the agglomeration of TiO2 nanoparticles.
+The chemicals were obtained from the following sources and used without further purification:
+and the color of the mixture turned to shallow brown red.
+and the Ag deposition on the wall of the three-neck flask was not observed.
+The hypothesis was that the amino groups would react with the epoxy and the silane groups with the alumina surface, thus creating a relatively strong nanoparticle/epoxy interface.
+Three steps were used to prepare the nanocomposites.
+Because the surface modified Al2O3 nanoparticles aggregate easily after the centrifuging and drying processes,
+the vinylsilane treatment indeed resulted in covalent bonding between the particles and the polymer.
+The loading levels of fillers were estimated from remaining amounts in TGA tests.
+The particle concentration was 5 mass% of the silica core in all of the dried samples.
+More details of these issues are in Supplementary Information.
+Variation of Ag/epoxy and CB/epoxy compositions led to Ag/CB/epoxy nanocomposites with different loading levels of CB and Ag.
+The shape, average size and size distribution of the nanoparticles were investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM).
+The chemical structure of the epoxy and curing agent used in this work was provided in Scheme 4.
+The scheme of the functionalized BaTiO3 nanoparticles is shown in Scheme 3
+which has been demonstrated in detail in our previous work [30].
+The scheme of the hyperbranched aromatic polyamide functionalized BaTiO3 nanoparticles is also shown in Scheme 3.
+In this letter,
+to significantly raise the dielectric constant of polymer matrix materials.
+Recently, several groups have found an extraordinary increase in the dielectric constant in composites containing electrical conducting granules.
+It has also been observed that
+In our study,
+in order to ap- proach the critical value as closely as possible in the composite systems.
+Figure 1 a  shows the dielectric constant at 100 Hz for the two-phase BaTiO3 /PVDF composites.
+For illustration and comparison, Fig. 1 a  also shows the calculations from well-known Maxwell – Garnett approximation7,12 : and Bruggeman self-consistent effective medium approximation7,12,13 : where   ( 2  1)/( 2 2 1);   is the dielectric constant of the BaTiO3 /PVDF composite;
+The Maxwell–Garnett approximation is known to be reasonable for matrix- based composites consisting of a continuum matrix with em- bedded inclusions, while in Bruggeman self-consistent
+The surface-initiated RAFT polymerization process has been previously documented and is briefly discussed here.
+Sample Preparation.
+as discussed in our previous work.
+whereupon the polymer molecular weight was determined by GPC using a polystyrene standard.
+Systems investigated
+The structures of these compounds are depicted in Fig. 1.
+Prior work [15] showed that
+The details of sample formulations are discussed in [15].
+Melt processing and post-cure annealing are likely to mitigate the presence of pre-existing electric charge.
+The masterbatch procedure increased the viscosity of the mixture leading to higher shear forces during mixing and better nanoparticle dispersion.
+as described by Arbatti, et al.5
+The base material used in the present study is a Bisphenol- A epoxy resin (CY1300) along with triethylene tetramine hardener (HY956) from Huntsman.
+based on the assumption that the polymer contains a fixed percentage of non-volatiles after curing.
+The thinnest area of each recess for breakdown tests (Figure 1a) is about 0.1 mm ~ 0.2 mm thick.
+The diameter of the recessed samples and the planar samples is 76 mm.
+Please refer to [26] for a detailed description of the material formulation and sample preparation.
+The weight percentages reflect the total weight of the grafed particles, thus at a fixed weight percent the relative number of nanoparticles per unit volume varies between functionality type.
+and the cross-linking reaction checked with differential scanning calorimetry.
+This is particularly important since some properties can be sensitive to the degree of cross-linking achieved.
+An example of the dispersion obtained for a 10% (by weight) microcomposite is shown in figure 2.
+These processing methods are preferred because they are not very complicated from laboratory processing point of view and commercially available polymers and particles could be mixed with ease to prepare a composite.
+An important parameter during the experiments is the need for vacuum evacuation during polymer processing.
+During the composite preparation, air bubbles can get trapped in the material, especially during the mixing processes.
+To negate the influence of air bubbles on the dielectric measurements
+The choice of curing temperature and time was considered based on the material specifications data sheet.
+since it was found that a good dispersion could be obtained with this method.
+Secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) characterization done by the Evans analytical company determined the SiC powder doping level and type.
+2.1. Sample preparation
+However, subtle changes were made to the processing procedure in order to have the same aspect ratio for both untreated and treated nanotubes in the composites.
+In order to obtain the same aspect ratio for the two types of nanotube/matrix composites,
+In order to determine the final aspect ratio of the MWNT, a portion of the grip area of the dog bone geometry,
+Table 1 shows that the untreated and treated nanotubes had the same aspect ratio for each growth time.
+Hence, although the sonication step shortened the nanotubes, the surface functionalization procedure used does not cause additional shortening.
+2.1. Materials
+2.2. Preparation of nanotube/polycarbonate composites
+The details of the surface modification of the MWCNT and its characterization are described elsewhere [28].
+No evidence of such crystalline polymer was detected, eliminating crystallinity as a cause of the behavior noted below.
+The chemical treatment used is described by Dinand et al. [6].
+This treatment allows to obtain a final aqueous suspension of cellulose nanofibrils which does not sediment or flocculate.
+A TEM observation of this cellulosic fibrils is presented in Fig. 1.
+Because of cellulose degradation under the electron beam, TEM high magnification observations and thus the observation of individual nanofibrils are really difficult to run.
+Nevertheless, one can observe in Fig. 1 that cellulose nanofibrils are arranged in bundles of 10–50 nm width.
+The cellulose relative density is 1.58 g cm 3.
+and the final product is yellowish in colour.
+according to standard procedures for epoxy resins.
+The chemical structures of the epoxy resins in study and HMPA are shown in Figure 1.
+The current approach is by chemical reduction, specifically, reduction of silver nitrate with hydroquinone.
+Figure 2 shows the schematic of the formulation procedure.
+The basic procedure is as follows
+At this point the formulation is free of solvent,
+The thickness and feature of the shells can be modified by controlling the processing.
+We used the cured epoxy density along with the calculated density value for Ag@C nanoparticles to convert from units of weight percent to volume fraction.
+following a procedure described elsewhere.[19]
+The formation of Ba-OH surface groups greatly enhances the dispersibility of the TiO2 nanoparticles in organic media.
+As revealed in dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements,
+The chemical composition of the polymer was calculated according to the integrals of the characteristic peaks in 1H and [19]F NMR spectra.[23]
+All chemicals were used as received without further purification.
+2.1 SYSTEM INVESTIGATED
+Figure 1 shows FTIR spectra of vinylsilane-treated particles and vinylsilane-treated nanofillers in XLPE indicating that the surface treatment resulted in covalent bonding between the nanoparticles and the XLPE.
+There are two significant differences between these spectra: (1) many of the features of the particles (such as free silanol groups at 3747 cm-1 and a broad peak centered around 3500 cm-1) are gone, and (2) some new features are added.
+A schematic of the possible chemical reaction of the silica particle with vinylsilane treatment with the XLPE is shown in Figure 2.
+Proper dispersion of filler, crosslinking, and elimination of crosslinking byproducts are essential to achieving the optimum properties of the nanocomposite.
+Since adsorbed water will cause particle agglomeration,
+Figure 3 shows a SEM micrograph of a typical dispersion observed in all the nanocomposites tested.
+Three types of samples were formulated:
+Melt processing and post-cure annealing are likely to mitigate the presence of pre-existing electric charge.
+2.2 THERMOMECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS
+Table 1 summarizes the DSC tests.
+Changes in glass transition temperature can indicate altered polymer chain mobility.
+2.1. Materials
+2.2. MWNT surface oxidization
+In order to obtain a good dispersion of MWNTs in PMMA,
+2.3. Preparation of MWNT/PMMA nanocomposites
+To investigate the influence of MWNT aspect ratio on the compressive properties of the nanocomposite foams,
+In this study
+To achieve a good dispersion of the ceramic in the EPR matrix composites
+in order to improve the dielectric permittivity of the composites and the miscibility between polymer and ceramic particles
+in order to satisfy the curing process of the BaTiO3/EPR composites.
+The typical procedures for the synthesis of poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate) (PHFDA) functionalized BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BT-PHFDA) were carried out as follows.
+The typical procedures for the preparation of P(VDF-HFP)/BT-PHFDA nano- composite films were carried out as follows.
+The particle concentration was chosen to be 5 wt%, which has been shown to be a good value to observe property enhancement (Nelson and Fothergill 2004).
+The chemicals and reagents were obtained from the following sources and were used without further purification.
+All other chemicals and solvents were obtained as analytical grade products and used without further purification.
+The color of the mixture turned to brilliant yellow and the mixture started to bubble.
+Loading of silica was determined via TGA,
+A detailed nanocomposite preparation process was described in our previous work [14].
+The range of volume percent of SiO2 cores in the epoxy nanocomposites prepared is presented in Table 1.
+The maximum particle concentration studied was limited by the maximum viscosity that could be processed.
+It expanded rapidly, forming the characteristic worm-like ‘‘expanded graphite’’ (EG).
+The PMMA nanocomposites were synthesized using an adaptation of previously reported solution-based procedures.9,51,52
+Neither the LDPE powders nor the ZnO nanoparticles were observed to break into smaller pieces during the ball milling.
+The foamed nanocomposites C100 and C20 were named as F-C100 and F-C20, respectively.
+Together they formed large agglomerates approximately 1 mm in diameter composed of many LDPE powder particles coated with ZnO nanoparticles.
+The presence of air bubbles, moisture or other unintended matter in the polymer matrix can act as defects, which in turn can significantly influence the dielectric properties of the epoxy composites.
+The curing conditions for bisphenol-A epoxy and silicone were determined by a modulated differential scanning calorimeter (DSC, Model 2920, from TA Instruments), at a heating rate of 5 oC/min under a nitrogen atmosphere.
+Figure 2 shows the DSC thermograph of bisphenol-A epoxy and silicone.
+By using monofunctional silanes, it was ensured that only a monolayer is necessarily attached to the particle and wafer surfaces, thereby making the comparison of their surface energies possible.
+We denote the diameter as 28 nm in this paper.
+The depth resolution δr = δE/[S0]PNC is 40 45 nm depending on silica NP loading, where S0 is energy loss factor of the nanocomposite.36
+The proposed reaction scheme is shown in Figure 1.
+This particular grade of epoxy was chosen since they do not contain any pre-added fillers.
+In this study, the weight ratio of the inorganic precursor in the reaction mixture was taken as 25wt% (Sample A), 50wt% (Sample B) and 75wt% (Sample C) respectively.
+Three different compositions with varying concentration of aniline and pure PANI as shown in table 1 are investigated in detail
+The details of the surface modification of the MWCNT and its characterization are described elsewhere [28].
+Composite mixtures were made in two steps.
+The 25vol% 50nm-SiC/silicone rubber which displayed the highest composite I-V nonlinearity in a preliminary study, was selected to study the nonlinear I-V mechanism.
+The composite comes out as a bright green residue
+A processing method involving combination of two different techniques is used to prepare the nanocomposite samples with different fillers
+Two methods were then used for the composite processing.
+It is a high purity, filtered resin containing antioxidants.
+Table 1 shows that the degree of crystallinity of micro and untreated nanocomposites are in a similar range