Thermal, mechanical, dielectric, and morphological study of dielectric filler–based thermoplastic nanocomposites for electromechanical applications

Dielectric nanocomposite elastomers based on poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) (SEBS) and SEBS-grafted-maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA) with barium titanate (BT) suitable for electroactive applications were successfully manufactured by using two corotating twin extrusion systems. The main purpose of the work was to investigate the thermal, mechanical, dielectric, and morphological effects of additives on SEBS and SEBS-g-MA to widen their applications for electroactive applications using fast and more cost-effective simple production process. The morphological characterization showed a good and bad dispersion of BT into SEBS-g-MA and SEBS with 34.9% and −3% dielectric permittivity change in SEBS-g-MA and SEBS upon addition of 10 wt% BT. In addition, dielectric permittivity change, thermal change (enthalpy relaxation and thermal transitions), and mechanical (Young’s modulus, hysteresis loss under multiple stress cycles, storage modulus, loss modulus, and tan δ) properties of elastomers were found to be a function of additive concentration, compatibility and interaction between elastomers and additive type, orientation of additives, and reinforcing factors of additives in elastomers. A simple and effective modeling technique was used to demonstrate the effects of dielectric properties on nanocomposites due to poor dispersion of additives.