Characterization and Performance Evaluation of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles as Fillers in Polyvinyl Chloride Nanocomposites

Binary blends containing 5 wt% polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were filled with chemically produced Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (nZnO). The hand-lay approach made use of zinc oxide nanoparticles as a filler. The weight ratios of ZnO nanoparticles varied from 0 to 3 wt%. The zinc oxide nanoparticles were analyzed utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to study their crystalline structure and form. The samples were analyzed to investigate their thermal and dielectric properties in relation to the amount of filler present. Researchers used the mixing rule to determine the theoretical density of the nanocomposites and Archimedes’ principle to determine their experimental density. The thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity results showed fluctuations in relation to the filler concentrations. The mixture with 2.4% nZnO showed the minimum diffusivity and highest thermal conductivity relative to the pure blend in all evaluated samples. Increasing the weight ratio of nZnO resulted in a linear increase in the dielectric constant value and a linear decrease in resistivity. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the thermal stability and char production of the nanocomposites were significantly improved with increasing zinc oxide nanoparticles concentrations in the matrix.