Nanocomposites of polyamide 6/residual monomer with organic-modified montmorillonite and their nanofibers produced by electrospinning

• Autor(a) principal: Beatrice,Cesar Augusto Gonçalves
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Santos,Camila Ribeiro dos, Branciforti,Marcia Cristina, Bretas,Rosario Elida Suman
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Materials research (São Carlos. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14392012000400020
• topic: electrospinning; nanocomposites; polyamide 6; residual monomer; nanoclay

Nanocomposites of an organic-modified montmorillonite (MMT) and polyamide 6 (PA6) with a residual monomer were produced by melt mixing in a torque rheometer. By wide angle X-rays diffraction (WAXD), intercalated/exfoliated structures were observed in the PA6/MMT nanocomposites with 3 and 5 wt. (%) of MMT; on the other hand, when 7 wt. (%) of MMT was added, a nanocomposite with exfoliated structures was obtained due to the predominant linking reactions between the residual monomer and the "nanoclays" organic surfactant. Solutions of these PA6/MMT nanocomposites at 15, 17 and 20 wt. (%) in formic acid were prepared. The 3 and 5 wt. (%) nanocomposites were successfully electrospun; however, electrospinning of the 7 wt. (%) nanocomposite was not possible. WAXD, scanning and transmission electron microscopy results showed that the 3 and 5 wt. (%) nanofibers with average diameter between 80-250 nm had exfoliated structures. These results indicate that the high elongational forces developed during the electrospinning process changed the initial intercalated/exfoliated structure of the nanocomposites to an exfoliated one.