Effect of extrusion and compression moulding on the thermal properties of Nylon-6/Silica Aerogel Composites: Experimental Data

Abstract

The paper presents the effect of a lower extrusion speed and compression moulding on the thermal properties of PA-6/Aerogel composite. SEM/EDX and optical microscope images showed that although most of the aerogel was destroyed during extrusion at 65 rpm, extrusion at 5 rpm showed better retention of the aerogel structure. However, when subjected to moulding in a compression press, both composites suffered significant damage. Nevertheless, the final thermal conductivity and damage coefficient values did show an improvement in the thermal insulation properties of the samples extruded at 5 rpm compared to the samples extruded at 65 rpm and the virgin polymer (PA-6) with the former losing around 33% of the structure of the aerogel particles compared to 41% for the later.