Effect of interphase zone on the overall elastic properties of nanoparticle-reinforced polymer nanocomposites

In the current work, the effect of interphase region on the mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites reinforced with nanoparticles is studied. For this purpose, a closed-form interphase model as a function of radial distance based on finite-size representative volume element is suggested to estimate the mechanical properties of particle-reinforced nanocomposites. The effective Young’s and shear moduli of thermoplastic polycarbonate-based nanocomposites for a wide range of sizes and volume fractions of silicon carbide nanoparticles are investigated using the proposed interphase model and molecular dynamics simulations. In order to investigate the effect of particle size, several unit cells of the same volume fraction, but with different particle radii have been considered. The micromechanics-based homogenization results are in good agreement with the results of molecular dynamics simulations for all models. This study demonstrates that the suggested micromechanical interphase model has the capacity to estimate effective mechanical properties of polymer-based nanocomposites reinforced with spherical inclusions.