Titania-containing Polyarylene ether nitriles (PEN) hybrid films have been successfully fabricated via in-situ sol-gel process, nanosized TiO2 particles are found well dispersed within the polymer matrix. The dielectric properties of the films were measured to find that dielectric constant as well as dielectric loss of the hybrid films increased linearly with the increasing TiO2 content without sacrificing dielectric breakdown strength compared to that of the pristine polymer. Increased gel temperature reduced dielectric loss efficiently but has little influence on dielectric constant.

The stabilization of polyesteramide (PEA) was studied by TGA, melt index and intrinsic viscosity. Primary antioxidant A1010 (0.6 wt.%) combined with 0.2 wt.% of hydroperoxide decomposer A168 is effective in stabilizing PEA; but the holding life of PEA in the extruder barrel is only 30 min, and the antioxidants are completely consumed when it is extruded four times. Fillers including heavy calcium carbonate (HCC), tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and talc affect both the thermal stability and mechanical properties of the resultant composites, which are discussed in detail. The Turcsanyi model can best describe the composition dependence of tensile strength of the HCC and talc filled PEA, and the Sato-Furukawa can best predict the Young’s modulus of HCC filled PEA, but is poor for the talc-filled material © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) composites were fabricated using the screw extrusion and injection technique. The polymer-wrapped MWNTs were dispersed in fumed silicon dioxide with the help of ultrasonic stirring, and then further dispersed in a high density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix by a twin-screw extruder. It was found that there was a critical MWNT concentration around 1.0 wt% where a fine network of MWNT/SiO2 was formed. This gives the MWNT/HDPE composites much improved mechanical properties. From the mechanical property, it was found that the surface treatment of MWNT/SiO2 had a large effect on the performance of the composites. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measurement showed that MWNT could stabilize HDPE when its weight content was greater than 2.0 wt%, whereas silicon dioxide accelerated thermo-oxidation of the composites.

Polyarylene ether nitriles (PENs)/TiO2 nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized through the sol–gel process; the films were characterized by FTIR, XPS, SEM and TG. The dielectric properties of the films were also measured to find that the dielectric constant of nanocomposite films increases linearly with the TiO2 weight content and reaches 6.21 at a 20 wt.% TiO2 content. The nanocomposite films have favorable mechanical and thermal properties and are not sacrificing dielectric breakdown strength compared to that of pristine polymer. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sn-doped (Ba, Sr) TiO3 (BSTS) thin films have been deposited on highly (200) oriented LaNiO3 (LNO) thin films by sol-gel method. The atomic force microscope (AFM) images exhibited that the dopant Sn did not decrease the crystalline grain size of BST thin films. The structure of the BST film, determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), presented the higher intensity (110) and (200) peaks, while the latter was distinctly induced by LNO layer. Evidently, Sn-doped BST thin films on LNO/Si substrate were found to decrease the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss, which is favourable to potentially improve the figures of merits (FD) of pyroelectric materials. The BSTS thin films on LNO layer also displayed an excellent leakage current property comparing with the BST thin film on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si and LNO/Si substrates.