Photopolymerisation rates of nanoclay composites

摘要

It could be considered that photopolymerisation would provide a simple method for in-situ production of nanoclay polymer composites, thus once the problem of how to exfoliate clay platelets is overcome, reducing or completely avoiding the need for conventional processing to obtain these types of composites. Recent work on photocured acrylate systems has introduced polymerisable surfactants for surface modification of clay particles, replacing traditional quaternary ammonium type surfactants. This previous work also reports higher photopolymerisation rates for systems with well exfoliated clay particles, whereas, polymerisation rates would be expected to decrease with the introduction of filler.