Impact of Functionalised Silicon Carbide NPs on the Mechanical and Dielectric Performance of Sago Starch Based Nanocomposites

The current study elucidates the fabrication of self-supporting, flexible and bio-compatible polymer nanocomposite (NC) films based on sago starch (SG-ST) by utilizing the surface modified Silicon Carbide (F-SiC) nanoparticles (NPs). The fabricated SG-ST/F-SiC NC films were characterized using field emission electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), universal testing machine (UTM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and dielectric spectroscopy. Analysis of UTM results demonstrated that the value of Young’s modulus (Emod) of SG-ST increases from 73.6 2.9 MPa to 382.2 8.9 MPa after the addition of 6 wt.% of F-SiC NPs (SS3 NC film). Dielectric studies reveal that the dielectric permittivity (εʹ) exhibits a 50 fold increment ( = 25 Hz) for SG-ST (εʹ=348) embedded with 6 wt.% of F-SiC NPs (εʹ=17561) at room temperature. Further, the value of relaxation time ( of SG-ST decreases from 692.3 to 5.7 (at room temperature) and further decreases to 0.8 (at 100 ) after the addition of 6 wt.% of F-SiC NPs.