TY - GEN A1 - Cano Murillo, Natalia A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Hahn, Marc Benjamin A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Sturm, Heinz T1 - Cover image for the article "Nanomechanical study of polycarbonate/boehmite nanoparticles/epoxy ternary composite and their interphases" N2 - The image designed by Natalia Cano Murillo and colleagues shows the cross section of a ternary composite (boehmite/polycarbonate/epoxy, 80μm x 80μm). The surface was measured by AFM kelvin probe microscopy, yielding the surface potential which is shown as 3D‐surface and contour lines. The sample was further subjected to AFM force spectroscopy with a lateral resolution of 1μm², yielding the local Young's modulus, projected in false colors on the 3D surface. The ternary system, containing boehmite nanoparticles, shows a broad distribution of modulus, desirable for optimized macroscopic mechanical properties, such as high stiffness as well as toughness. KW - Boehmite KW - Epoxy KW - Polycarbonate KW - AFM KW - BNP PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/app.50400 SN - 0021-8995 SN - 1097-4628 VL - 138 IS - 12 SP - 1 PB - Wiley CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-51831 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cano Murillo, Natalia A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Hahn, Marc Benjamin A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Sturm, Heinz T1 - Nanomechanical study of polycarbonate/boehmite nanoparticles/epoxy ternary composite and their interphases N2 - Thermoplastic modified thermosets are of great interest especially due to their improved fracture toughness. Comparable enhancements have been achieved by adding different nanofillers including inorganic particles such as nanosized boehmite. Here, we present a nanomechanical study of two composite systems, the first comprising a polycarbonate (PC) layer in contact with epoxy resin (EP) and the second consisting of a PC layer containing boehmite nanoparticles (BNP) which is also in contact with an EP layer. The interaction between PC and EP monomer is tested by in situ Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) analysis, from which a reaction induced phase separation of the PC phase is inferred. Both systems are explored by atomic force microscopy (AFM) force spectroscopy. AFM force-distance curves (FDC) show no alteration of the mechanical properties of EP at the interface to PC. However, when a PC phase loaded with BNP is put in contact with an epoxy system during curing, a considerable mechanical improvement exceeding the rule of mixture was detected. The trend of BNP to agglomerate preferentially around EP dominated regions and the stiffening effect of BNP on EP shown by spatial resolved measurements of Young's modulus, suggest the effective presence of BNP within the EP phase. KW - Composites KW - Mechanical properties KW - Nanoparticles KW - Thermoplastics KW - Thermosets PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515965 SN - 0021-8995 SN - 1097-4628 VL - 138 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Wiley CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-51596 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -