EFFECT OF NANOCLAY CLUSTERS IN MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOCLAY/EPOXY COMPOSITES

摘要

The mechanical and thermal properties of nanoclay polymer composites have been experimentally investigated over the last decade. Most of the research has been focused mainly on the control of their inter-planar structures, which govern the global properties of the composites. In reality, these structures (both exfoliated and intercalated patterns) are hardly achieved in the manufacturing process of products. Different sizes of clusters mixed by the nanoclay and matrix would be easily formed, particularly in the extrusion of polymer-based components. This paper experimentally studied the influence of micro-hardness of nanoclay/epoxy composites with different amount of nanoclay content, which formed different sizes of the clusters. The results showed that the micro-hardness of the composites could be enhanced when a small amount of nanoclay was used. However, there was an optimal limit in which the hardness was dropped with continuously increasing the nanoclay content. Microscopic observation on the fracture surfaces showed that the size of the clusters varied with the amount of nanoclays used in the composites.