Cyanate Ester Resin/Silica subnanocomposites and their superiority over nanocomposites due to fundamental role of constrained interfacial dynamics

The study of nanostructure, thermal and relaxation properties (by HAADF-STEM, EDXS, DMA and DSC), combined with the calculations of interparticle distances and interfacial areas, has been performed for a series of the hybrid Cyanate Ester Resin (CER)/Si02 polymer composites with 0.01 to 10 wt.% Si02 units introduced via a sol-gel process. The absence of clusterization, arising only subnanometric Si02 nodes and their quasi-regular distribution within the amorphous matrix, with the shortest distances between nodes, provided their exceptional positive impact on the matrix properties at ultra-low Si02 contents of 0.03-0.1 wt.%. The superiority of these subnanocomposites over the nanocomposites was determined by the role of constrained interfacial dynamics over the whole matrix.