Effects of aging and pyrolysis on resorcinol-based phthalonitrile (RPh) polymeric foams and the development of graphene/RPh nanocomposite

• Main Author: Toh, Cindy Xin Li.
• Other Authors: Hu Xiao
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Material testing and characterization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/35561
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

High temperature polymeric foam is widely researched for use in aerospace and electronics industry. Only a few researches were done on the investigation of RPh foam. In this report, RPh foam was used to determine the prepolymer viscosity and foaming temperature which gave the best foam quality. The best foaming parameters were used to synthesize foams for aging and pyrolysis. Maximum loading capacity of GN filler in RPh foam was also determined. Aging was conducted at 300 oC in air for 100 h. Pyrolysis was conducted in argon purged oven at 600 oC and 800 oC. SEM was used to view the morphologies of the foams to determine the cell shape. Compression testing was done on aged and pyrolysed foam to determine the strength of the foam. XRD was conducted on pyrolysed foam to confirm foam carbonization. TGA analysis was done on pyrolysed foam to determine the thermal stability.