Thermal diffusivity of PMMA/Alumina Nano Composites Using Molecular Dynamic Simulation

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how alumina nanoparticles influence the thermal diffusivity of PMMA, providing insights into fire retardant properties and thermal stability of polymer nanocomposites.

Contribution

It introduces a molecular simulation approach to analyze the impact of alumina nanoparticles on PMMA's thermal diffusivity, a novel application in fire safety research.

Findings

Alumina nanoparticles increase the thermal diffusivity of PMMA.

The simulation results suggest improved thermal stability with nanoparticle addition.

Thermal diffusivity correlates with fire retardant properties in the composite.

Abstract

Fire protection mainly takes place through physical or chemical pathways or both of them. The thermal diffusivity is one of the basic thermophysical properties which can connect the chemical structure. It is well-known in the literature that there exist relationships between the thermal diffusivity and the thermal stability. Also, the thermal diffusivity can be related to some fire retardant properties such as total-heat-release (THR), time-to-ignition (TTI) and peak-heat-rare-release (PHRR) that are of the most important parameters in the evaluation of potential fire hazard of a given material. Metal oxides, as one of the most promising flame retardant additives, improve the fire-retardant and the thermal stability properties of polymers. In the present study, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations based on the united atom model are utilized to study the effect of alumina nanoparticles on the thermal diffusivity of isotactic Polymethyl methacrylate (is-PMMA) polymer.