CHARACTERISATION AND FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF PMMA-CLAY NANOCOMPOSITES

摘要

The structure/property relationship of lightly crosslinked PMMA-clay nanocomposites has been investigated using a range of commercially available clays. The X-ray diffraction experiments performed show that all the composites produced have at least an intercalated nano-composite microstructure, with the 3%wt composites having a microstructure that approaches that of an exfoliated nanocomposite, with large gallery spacings. The presence of clay in PMMA reduced the measured K_(1c) and increased its T_g The value of T_g was increased the most for the composites with the largest gallery spacings.