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 ∼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.