Vinyl ester/clay based nanocomposites: a complementary study of vinyl ester polymerization by hyphenated rheo-Fourier transform infrared and separate rheology/Fourier transform infrared measurements

摘要

This work is focused on the complementary information obtained from advanced in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and rheological measurements to correlate the structural changes with rheological properties upon polymerization of different organically modified montmorillonite clay/vinyl ester composites prepared by in situ polymerization. The microstructure and morphology of the nanocomposites were examined by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The effect exerted by the presence of organic clay on the polymerization reaction of a vinyl ester based polymer matrix was evaluated. In situ and ex situ rheo-FTIR measurements were compared to demonstrate the accuracy of this technique.