ANALYSIS OF MICROMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF REACTIVE EXTRUSION COMPOSITES BY NANOINDENTATION

Special designed reactive single screw extrusion system is used as an appropriate method for producing of polymer composites at very high filler content (up to 20 wt. %) having micro- and/or nanosized structure. In order to assess the macro- and micro-mechanical properties of the obtained composites a series of nanoindentation tests was performed employing different indentation procedures on Agilent G200 Nanoindenter fitted with a diamond Berkovich type tip. The two mechanical characteristics, the indentation hardness and the indentation modulus, were determined. The change of the mechanical properties with indentation depth was examined and evaluated in comparison with the macro mechanical composites properties.