Résumé
Guilhem Baeza1, Anne-Caroline Genix1, Marc Couty2, and Julian Oberdisse1, 1Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, CNRS/Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France 2 Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand, France Corresponding author: julian.oberdisse@univ-montp2.fr Mixing inorganic nanoparticles (ca. 10-20 nm) with polymer leads to the formation of nanocomposites. Their main reason of existence is that they combine the best of both worlds, i.e. nanoparticle strength and polymer flexibility, which has important applications, e.g. for the car tire industry. In this talk, a simplified industrial model system based on filler particles of industrial origin but with a highly reduced chemistry will be presented. Microscopic observations of the nanoparticle dispersion in the polymer matrix on length scales extending from the nanometric primary particles to microns by electron microscopy and scattering will be discussed. In particular, we propose an original method for scattering data analysis of such multi-scale systems by including self-consistent polydisperse form and structure factors of aggregates of nanoparticles [1]. These results are then related to the macroscopic rheological properties, which show a percolation behavior. It is interesting to note that the aggregate compacity obtained from the structural analysis (SAXS and TEM) is fully compatible with the rheological reinforcement data. [1] G.P. Baeza et al, Macromolecules, (46) 317, 2013, (cover article January 2013).