One-step in situ synthesis of polyamide microcapsules with inorganic payload and their transformation into responsive thermoplastic composite materials

Well-dispersed loads of finely powdered metals, metal oxides, several carbon allotropes or nanoclays are incorporated into highly porous polyamide 6 microcapsules in controllable amounts via an original one-step in situ fabrication technique. It is based on activated anionic polymerization (AAP) of ε-caprolactam in a hydrocarbon solvent performed in the presence of the respective micro- or nanosized loads. The forming microcapsules with typical diameters of 25-50 µm entrap up to 40 wt% of load. Their melt processing produces hybrid thermoplastic composites. Mechanical, electric conductivity and magnetic response measurements show that transforming of in situ loaded microcapsules into composites by melt processing (MP) is a facile and rapid method to fabricate materials with high mechanical resistance and electro-magnetic characteristics sufficient for many industrial applications. This novel concept requires low polymerization temperatures, no functionalization or compatibilization of the loads and it is easy to scale up at industrial production levels.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of FCT - Portugal (SFRH/BPD/45252 co-financed by QREN-POPH program of the EU) and of 11 MiNaXS beamline of DESY – Hamburg, Germany. This work was also supported by FEDER through the COMPETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2013 and the project Matepro –Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER- 000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER).