Preparation and characterization of epoxy/vermiculite nanocomposites

摘要

Epoxy resin/vermiculite (VMT) nanocomposites were prepared by in-situ melt bisphenol-A epoxy resin in the presence of amino-modified vermiculite. The detailed thermal property, cure kinetics and morphology of epoxy/vermiculite nanocomposites were studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In order to improve the compatibility between the organic and inorganic phases a quaternary amine, N, N-dimethyldecan-1-amine oxide (DDA), was used to modify the vermiculite. An autocatalytic mechanism was observed for the epoxy/VMT nanocomposites. The higher reaction rate observed in the nanocomposites is caused by the DDA as a catalyst which accelerated the curing of epoxy. In the exfoliated epoxy/VMT nanocomposites, the separation between the exfoliated nanolayers of VMT was variable or disorder, which the nano-scale VMT were well dispersed in the epoxy matrix from the TEM image analysis.