Tailoring and understanding the mechanical properties of nanoparticle-shelled bubbles

One common approach to generate lightweight materials with high specific strength and stiffness is the incorporation of stiff hollow microparticles (also known as bubbles or microballoons) into a polymeric matrix. The mechanical properties of these composites, also known as syntactic foams, greatly depend on those of the hollow microparticles. It is critical to precisely control the properties of these bubbles to fabricate lightweight materials that are suitable for specific applications. In this paper, we present a method to tailor the mechanical properties and response of highly monodisperse nanoparticle-shelled bubbles using thermal treatment. We characterize the mechanical properties of individual as-assembled bubbles as well as those of thermally treated ones using nanoindentation and quantitative in situ compression tests. As-assembled bubbles display inelastic response, whereas thermally treated bubbles behave elastically. We also show that the stiffness and strength of bubbles are enhanced significantly, as much as 12 and 14 times that of the as-assembled bubbles, respectively, via thermal treatment. We complement the experimental results with finite element analysis (FEA) to understand the effect of shell thickness nonuniformity as well as the inelasticity on the mechanical response and fracture behavior of these bubbles. We demonstrate that the failure mechanism of bubbles incorporated into a polymer composite depends on the structure of the bubbles.