Effect of silane surface modified titania nanoparticles on the thermal, mechanical, and corrosion protective properties of a bisphenol-A based phthalonitrile resin

A new type of nanocomposites was prepared by reinforcing a high performance bisphenol-A phthalonitrile resin with different amounts of silane surface modified titania nanoparticles. The effect of the nanofillers amount on the thermal, mechanical, and corrosion protective properties was investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the starting decomposition temperatures and the residual weight at 800   °C were highly improved upon adding the nanofillers. At 6% nanoloading, the glass transition temperature and the storage modulus were considerably enhanced reaching 364.4   °C and 3.2   GPa, respectively. The tensile strength and modulus as well as the microhardness values increased with the increasing of the nanoparticles amount. The tensile modulus calculations were investigated using Series, Halpin–Tsai, and Kerner models. Haplin–Tsai model was found to reproduce the experimental data with the best accuracy. Finally, results from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that the neat resin and its related nanocomposites offer excellent corrosion protective properties.