Assembly of a Conductive Nanoparticle Polymer Nano Composite Thermal Insulation Film

Abstract Organic-inorganic nano-composite films have attracted considerable attention due to their extraordinary properties, performance and applications. There have been few reports in the literature of conductive nano-composite organic-inorganic films. Herein an antimony tin oxide (ATO) polyethersulfone (PES) nano-composite conductive film has been assembled. First, the high conductive ATO nanoparticles were synthesized in the solid state and fully characterized using a variety of techniques focusing on its conductive properties. Next, a good dispersion reagent was selected to optimize conditions such as dispersion agent to ATO nanoparticle weight ratio, to generate maximum conductivity of the nanoparticle paste in solution. Oleic acid (OA) is a good dispersion agent, and the minimum resistance (R) is at an OA/ATO weight ratio at 0.5 in an NMP solution. Third, the ATO-PES nano-composite films were assembled by mixing a blended solution applied to the OA capped ATO nanoparticle solution with the polymer PES. Five different ATO composited films (4.5, 9.8, 18.8, 28.7 and 32.2%) were prepared under the same conditions but only the 32.2% weight of ATO film showed electronic conductivity at the OA/ATO weight ratio of 0.5. However, the conductivity is not homogenous, being more conductive at the bottom. The film becomes more homogenous in conductivity when the OA/ATO weight ratio is reduced to 0.19 and with 35.8% ATO. The measured top film resistance (R) is linear correlation to the film length, indicating that the film resistance is homogenous. The topography and current mapping of the film top shows the root mean square roughness (Rq) of the topography image is around 40 ± 2.5nm with agglomerates of densely packed ATO nanoparticles embedded into the polymer matrices in the film. The current map shows that the current is only present where nanoparticles are located. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that all ATO PES films are thermally stable films but only the 32.2% ATO film is conductive. A thermal radiation test showed that the film has excellent thermal insulation properties and the potential application in efficient building insulation and tent materials.