Formation and properties of nylon 6 nanocomposites

• Autor(a) principal: Fornes,T. D.
• Data de Publicação: 2003
• Outros Autores: Paul,D. R.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Polímeros (São Carlos. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-14282003000400004
• topic: Nanocomposites; nylon 6; organoclay; melt processing

Sodium montmorillonite clay consists of platelets, one nanometer thick with large lateral dimensions, which can be used to achieve efficient reinforcement of polymer matrices. Formation of these nanocomposites requires modifying the clay with an appropriate organic surface treatment and optimized processing. Some of these techniques and the resulting property improvements (modulus, thermal expansion, heat distortion temperature, etc.) are reviewed here. It is shown that shear stress exerted on stacks of clay platelets play an important role in the mechanism of exfoliation. The modulus enhancement observed is of the order predicted by composite theories; however, the clay particles clearly affect the crystalline morphology of the polymer phase which may have an additional effect on some composite properties.