Preparation of Ag nanoparticles-reinforced polyamide 6 nanocomposites by in situ polymerization and investigation of its properties

Polyamide 6 (noted as PA6)/Ag nanocomposites were prepared by an in situ solution polymerization method. AgNO₃ was used as filler and was directly reduced to silver nanoparticles resulting in uniformly dispersed nanoparticles in the PA6 matrix. The thermal stability, crystallization, melting performance, and dispersion properties of the PA6/Ag nanocomposites were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), differential thermal scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and polarized light microscopy (POM). Furthermore, the mechanical and tribological behaviors of as-prepared nanocomposites were evaluated using universal tensile testing, impact testing, and friction testing machines. The results show that Ag-nanoparticles are evenly dispersed in PA6 and decrease in size with increasing Ag content. Whereas the crystallinity increased with increasing Ag content, the crystallization temperature of the nanocomposites did not change significantly. However, the mechanical and tribological properties of the nanocomposites increased compared with pure PA6.