Development and characterization of carboxylated copper oxide conjugated polymeric nanocomposites and correlating with computational techniques

The quality and effectiveness of composite-based components are influenced by their mechanical characteristics. Hence, a structured approach is essential to identify the key factors that contribute to achieving superior mechanical characteristics. This study investigates the utilization of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the mechanical characteristics, explicitly density, and hardness, of carboxyl copper oxide nanoparticle (CCONP)/ DL-lactide and glycolide copolymer (PDLG) nanocomposites fabricated through microwave-assisted sintering. The research explores the effects of numerous microwave sintering conditions on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites. Physical characterization techniques including FTIR and TEM analysis are employed to confirm physical interactions and nanocomposite size. A back-propagation neural network with a 2–10-2 architecture was developed to predict density and hardness. The network was trained using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and the Scaled Conjugate Gradient method. The predicted values are compared with experimental results, showing good agreement with correlation coefficients (R) of 0.883 for density and 0.9737 for hardness. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the ANN approach in evaluating the mechanical properties of CCONP/PDLG nanocomposites, providing a reliable tool for decision-making and potentially reducing experimental characterization costs.