Highly Filled Resins produced with Power Ultrasound
Ultrasonic dispersion allows for the efficient and homogeneous incorporation of nano fillers into resins. Ultrasonic dispersers can easily handle high solid concentration in order to produce highly filled resins with a uniform particle distribution. Sonication is compatible with all kind of conventional resins, polymers and fillers.
Filled Resins and Polymers
Filled resins and polymers are widely used in industrial manufacturing of high-performance coatings, paints, plastic materials as well as in material science. Known as compounds, these mixtures consist in resins or polymers, additives and fillers. Additives are components such as stabilizers and fillers, which give the composite special characteristics. For instance, nano particle fillers can reinforce a composite by adding tensile strength, scratch resistance, UV resistance, thermo-durability or ductility to a resin. Stabilizers are used to maintain the composition of a resin formulation over time and under various conditions. A highly filled resin obtains its special material properties from the specific types of fillers and additives used. Especially nano-sized particles are well-known for their unique characteristics and excellent reinforcing capacity. Functional fillers are a crucial ingredient for high-performance materials. In order to include such fillers as highly-functional particles into resins and polymer composites, it is essential to mix them as single-dispersed particles into the composite. Ultrasonic dispersion applies cavitational high-shear forces, which deagglomerate and mill particles on nano-scale into resin and polymers. Ultrasonic disperser easily handle high viscous materials and high solid loads. As result, ultrasonic dispersers produce highly filled resins of superior quality.
Ultrasonic dispersers can easily handle high solid loads and viscosities and are thereby ideal for the production of highly filled resins and composites. The picture shows the ultrasonic inline disperser UIP16000hdT.
- Efficient dispersion
- Reduction to nano-size
- Rapid treatment
- Batch or flow mode
- Linear scalable
- Highly reproducible results
- Easy and safe to operate
- 24/7/365 operation
Ultrasonically produced filled resins and composites offer superior material properties due to uniformly nano-dispersed fillers. By combining the resin with functional fillers under high-performance ultrasonic dispersion, the resulting composite exhibits excellent material strength and performance such as fibre reinforcement, electric and thermal conductivity, optical properties and ductility.
Ultrasonic dispersers can be used to produce master batches of highly filled resins, polymers and other composites, which excel with high performance.
Ultrasonic Production of Highly Filled Resins
Ultrasonic dispersers are well known for their outstanding capability of processing highly functional nano particles. Hielscher Ultrasonics high-performance ultrasonicators deliver reliably high amplitudes, which are necessary to disperse and deagglomerate nano materials uniformly into a suspension. High abrasiveness and high solid concentration are no problems. With our ultrasonic flow-through reactors, even high viscous, paste-like materials are processed with highest efficiency and reliability. Therefore, ultrasonic dispersers are ideal for the production of highly filled resins and composites.
Ultrasonic dispersers can handle any type of resin and polymer, such as epoxy resins, polyester resins, vinyl esters, polymers and bio-polymers, paints and coatings.
Any type of additives and functional fillers can be added in order to produce the composite in accordance to your formulation recipe. Commonly used fillers and additives for filled resins include high-performance nano-particles such as CNTs, TiO2, SiO2, BaSO4, graphene, graphene oxide, Al2O3 nano platelets (corundrum), colour pigments etc.
These fillers and additives are incorporated into resins in order to give them superior material characteristics such as scratch resistance, tensile strength, UV resistance, gloss, ductility, optical properties etc. With ultrasonic dispersion, exceptional composite performance is reliably and reproducibly obtained.
Ultrasonic wet-milling and dispersing is a highly efficient method for particle size reduction, e.g. of TiO2
Technical drawing of the UIP4000hdt, a 4000 watts powerful industrial high-shear mixer for inline production of highly filled resins and nano composites.
Ultrasonic Toll-Manufacturing of Highly Filled Resins
Hielscher Ultrasonics offers the service of toll manufacturing or contract manufacturing of highly filled resins. We use our high-power industrial ultrasonic dispersers to produce high-performance filled resins custom-tailored to our contract partner’s needs.
Furthermore, we offer bulks of standard filled epoxy resins, where CNTs, TiO2, SiO2 or graphene at various concentrations has been uniformly incorporated via ultrasonic dispersing. Ask us for more information about our highly filled resins and our toll manufacturing services!
High-Power Ultrasonic Dispersers for the Production of Filled Resins
Hielscher Ultrasonics designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance ultrasonic dispersers for heavy-duty applications such as the manufacturing of highly filled resins and composites. Hielscher ultrasonicators are used world-wide for dispersing nano-materials into resins, polymers, paints and other high-performance materials.
Hielscher Ultrasonics’ industrial ultrasonic processors can deliver continuously very high amplitudes. Amplitudes of up to 200µm can be easily run in 24/7 operation. The option to operate an ultrasonic disperser at high amplitudes and to adjust the amplitude precisely is necessary to adapt the ultrasonic process conditions to the formulation of filled resins and composites.
Another important process parameter is pressure. Under elevated pressures, the intensity of ultrasonic cavitation and its shear forces is intensified. Hielscher’s ultrasonic reactors can be pressurized. A pluggable pressure sensor wires to the ultrasonic generator, where the processing parameters such as ultrasonic energy, temperature, pressure and time are automatically stored onto a built-in SD-card.
Process monitoring and data recording are important for continuous process standardization and product quality. By accessing the automatically recorded process data, you can revise previous sonication runs and evaluate the outcome.
Another user-friendly feature is the browser remote control of our digital ultrasonic systems. Via remote browser control you can start, stop, adjust and monitor your ultrasonic processor remotely from anywhere.
The table below gives you an indication of the approximate processing capacity of our ultrasonicators:
| Batch Volume | Flow Rate | Recommended Devices |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 2000mL | 20 to 400mL/min | UP200Ht, UP400St |
| 0.1 to 20L | 0.2 to 4L/min | UIP2000hdT |
| 10 to 100L | 2 to 10L/min | UIP4000hdT |
| n.a. | 10 to 100L/min | UIP16000 |
| n.a. | larger | cluster of UIP16000 |
Literature / References
- Guo L. et al. (2018): Enhanced thermal conductivity of epoxy composites filled with tetrapod-shaped ZnO. RSC Advances, 2018, 8. 12337–12343.
- Brad W. Zeiger; Kenneth S. Suslick (2011): Sonofragmentation of Molecular Crystals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 37, 14530–14533.
- Poinern G.E., Brundavanam R., Thi-Le X., Djordjevic S., Prokic M., Fawcett D. (2011): Thermal and ultrasonic influence in the formation of nanometer scale hydroxyapatite bio-ceramic. Int J Nanomedicine. 2011; 6: 2083–2095.
High performance ultrasonics! Hielscher’s product range covers the full spectrum from the compact lab ultrasonicator over bench-top units to full-industrial ultrasonic systems.