Tailorable thermoplastic insulation foam composites enabled by porous-shell hollow glass spheres and expandable thermoplastic microspheres

Meghan E. Lamm; Kai Li; Jerald Atchley; Som S. Shrestha; Shannon M. Mahurin; Diana Hun; Tolga Aytug

doi:10.1016/j.polymer.2022.125652

Tailorable thermoplastic insulation foam composites enabled by porous-shell hollow glass spheres and expandable thermoplastic microspheres

Meghan E. Lamm, Kai Li, Jerald Atchley, Som S. Shrestha, Shannon M. Mahurin, Diana Hun, Tolga Aytug

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a simple and commercially viable strategy to produce thermoplastic composite foams using synergistic foaming approaches – incorporating porous-shell hollow-interior glass spheres (PHGS) as a filler and utilizing expandable thermoplastic microspheres (EMS) as a physical blowing agent – for thermal insulation applications. The EMS in these composites ensure formation of highly porous, low-density foam while the PHGSs provide low thermal conductivity and lightweight mechanical reinforcement. Through systematic optimization of the PHGS and EMS loadings, a lightweight, and robust insulation with thermal resistivity greater than 27.7 m·K/W (R/in. > 4) is achieved. Notably, the fabricated foams also demonstrated comparable compressive strength than some commercial thermoplastic insulating materials. Through optimization of PHGS and EMS concentrations, results indicated similar thermal performance characteristics at varying foam densities, while higher loadings of both components lead to reduced insulation performance and weak mechanical stability of the foams. The results obtained, when coupled with the potential scalability and tailor ability of the overall process towards targeted insulation performance, not only endows competitiveness with current commercial thermoplastic insulating materials but also offers great promise for the development of unique thermoplastic composite foams for a variety of insulation systems.

Original language	English
Article number	125652
Journal	Polymer
Volume	267
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2022.125652
State	Published - Feb 13 2023

Funding

This research is supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Building Technologies Office , under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging and analyses were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is sponsored at ORNL by the DOE Scientific User Facilities Division , Office of Science , Basic Energy Sciences . This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with DOE. The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/ doe-public-access-plan). This research is supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Building Technologies Office, under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging and analyses were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is sponsored at ORNL by the DOE Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with DOE. The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Funders	Funder number
DOE Public Access Plan
DOE Scientific User Facilities Division
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Building Technologies Office	DE-AC05-00OR22725
UT-Battelle

Keywords

Expandable microspheres
Foam composites
Porous hollow glass spheres
Thermal insulation materials
Thermoplastic foams

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10.1016/j.polymer.2022.125652

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title = "Tailorable thermoplastic insulation foam composites enabled by porous-shell hollow glass spheres and expandable thermoplastic microspheres",

abstract = "We report a simple and commercially viable strategy to produce thermoplastic composite foams using synergistic foaming approaches – incorporating porous-shell hollow-interior glass spheres (PHGS) as a filler and utilizing expandable thermoplastic microspheres (EMS) as a physical blowing agent – for thermal insulation applications. The EMS in these composites ensure formation of highly porous, low-density foam while the PHGSs provide low thermal conductivity and lightweight mechanical reinforcement. Through systematic optimization of the PHGS and EMS loadings, a lightweight, and robust insulation with thermal resistivity greater than 27.7 m·K/W (R/in. > 4) is achieved. Notably, the fabricated foams also demonstrated comparable compressive strength than some commercial thermoplastic insulating materials. Through optimization of PHGS and EMS concentrations, results indicated similar thermal performance characteristics at varying foam densities, while higher loadings of both components lead to reduced insulation performance and weak mechanical stability of the foams. The results obtained, when coupled with the potential scalability and tailor ability of the overall process towards targeted insulation performance, not only endows competitiveness with current commercial thermoplastic insulating materials but also offers great promise for the development of unique thermoplastic composite foams for a variety of insulation systems.",

keywords = "Expandable microspheres, Foam composites, Porous hollow glass spheres, Thermal insulation materials, Thermoplastic foams",

author = "Lamm, {Meghan E.} and Kai Li and Jerald Atchley and Shrestha, {Som S.} and Mahurin, {Shannon M.} and Diana Hun and Tolga Aytug",

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year = "2023",

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day = "13",

doi = "10.1016/j.polymer.2022.125652",

language = "English",

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AU - Lamm, Meghan E.

AU - Li, Kai

AU - Atchley, Jerald

AU - Shrestha, Som S.

AU - Mahurin, Shannon M.

AU - Hun, Diana

AU - Aytug, Tolga

PY - 2023/2/13

Y1 - 2023/2/13

N2 - We report a simple and commercially viable strategy to produce thermoplastic composite foams using synergistic foaming approaches – incorporating porous-shell hollow-interior glass spheres (PHGS) as a filler and utilizing expandable thermoplastic microspheres (EMS) as a physical blowing agent – for thermal insulation applications. The EMS in these composites ensure formation of highly porous, low-density foam while the PHGSs provide low thermal conductivity and lightweight mechanical reinforcement. Through systematic optimization of the PHGS and EMS loadings, a lightweight, and robust insulation with thermal resistivity greater than 27.7 m·K/W (R/in. > 4) is achieved. Notably, the fabricated foams also demonstrated comparable compressive strength than some commercial thermoplastic insulating materials. Through optimization of PHGS and EMS concentrations, results indicated similar thermal performance characteristics at varying foam densities, while higher loadings of both components lead to reduced insulation performance and weak mechanical stability of the foams. The results obtained, when coupled with the potential scalability and tailor ability of the overall process towards targeted insulation performance, not only endows competitiveness with current commercial thermoplastic insulating materials but also offers great promise for the development of unique thermoplastic composite foams for a variety of insulation systems.

AB - We report a simple and commercially viable strategy to produce thermoplastic composite foams using synergistic foaming approaches – incorporating porous-shell hollow-interior glass spheres (PHGS) as a filler and utilizing expandable thermoplastic microspheres (EMS) as a physical blowing agent – for thermal insulation applications. The EMS in these composites ensure formation of highly porous, low-density foam while the PHGSs provide low thermal conductivity and lightweight mechanical reinforcement. Through systematic optimization of the PHGS and EMS loadings, a lightweight, and robust insulation with thermal resistivity greater than 27.7 m·K/W (R/in. > 4) is achieved. Notably, the fabricated foams also demonstrated comparable compressive strength than some commercial thermoplastic insulating materials. Through optimization of PHGS and EMS concentrations, results indicated similar thermal performance characteristics at varying foam densities, while higher loadings of both components lead to reduced insulation performance and weak mechanical stability of the foams. The results obtained, when coupled with the potential scalability and tailor ability of the overall process towards targeted insulation performance, not only endows competitiveness with current commercial thermoplastic insulating materials but also offers great promise for the development of unique thermoplastic composite foams for a variety of insulation systems.

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KW - Foam composites

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KW - Thermal insulation materials

KW - Thermoplastic foams

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Tailorable thermoplastic insulation foam composites enabled by porous-shell hollow glass spheres and expandable thermoplastic microspheres

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Keywords

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