Evaluating the elastic behaviour of boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) reinforced phenolic nanocomposites

The present analysis concerns investigation of the elastic behavior of boron nitride nanotube (BNNT)-reinforced phenolic nanocomposite using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In the investigation, an armchair BNNT with chiral vectors (10, 10) was used as reinforcement and novolac-type phenolic chains and formaldehyde mixture was used as a matrix. The crosslinking of phenolic chains and formaldehyde mixture was achieved to obtain the three-dimensional crosslinked structure reinforced with BNNT. In addition to the tensile elastic modulus, the glass transition temperature was evaluated for the bulk phenolic resin and the nanocomposite using the density-temperature relationship. Based on the results, it was concluded that 6.8% (volume fraction) of BNNT can enhance the elastic modulus of the composite by similar to 15 times. Poisson's ratio was found to be independent of the mixing ratio. It was also observed that reinforcement with BNNT can enhance the glass transition temperature of the nanocomposite. Continuum-based rule of mixture showed a good correlation with the MD predictions.