Nanocomposites based on a multicomponent polyurethane/poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) polymer matrix and nanofiller hydroxy-POSS as potential noise and vibration damping materials.

Nanocomposites based on multicomponent polymer matrices, consisting of polyurethane and poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) and representing a semi-interpenetrating polymer network, and nanofiller hydroxy-POSS were synthesized, and the thermodynamic parameters of interactions in the system, the dynamic-mechanical properties and the morphology were investigated. The free energy (Gibbs energy) of polyurethane and poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) mixing was calculated depending on the hydroxy-POSS content in the nanocomposites. It was shown that polyurethane and poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) are thermodynamically incompatible. Introduction of a hydroxy-POSS nanofiller leads to an increase in the thermodynamic incompatibility between polyurethane and poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate). Dynamic mechanical analysis has shown that for the nanocomposites, there is one maximum of the mechanical loss (tg δ), which is the result of forced phase compatibility and the existence of a large proportion of interphase layers in the systems. This broad maximum of tan δ covers the temperature range from 0 to 100 °C and has a rather high intensity. This means that the created nanocomposites have the potential of being used as effective noise-vibration-damping materials.