Role of Polyamide 11 Interaction with Clay and Modifier on Thermal, Rheological and Mechanical Properties in Polymer Clay Nanocomposites

摘要

The relationship between the morphological observations and the physical properties of polyamide 11 (PA11)/clay nanocomposites prepared by melt processing was investigated with a special interest on the use of various contents of silane modified PA11 (PA-m-Si). PA-m-Si was prepared using 1 wt% of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) added to PA11 in reactive extrusion. The morphological observations by TEM and XRD are presented in conjunction with the rheological and mechanical properties of these nanocomposites. The addition of PA-m-Si generated a net favorable interaction with organoclay that permitted higher level of exfoliation/intercalation resulting from a balance of component interactions. XRD spectra of nanocomposites revealed that the increase of PA-m-Si induced a decrease in peak intensities at high clay loadings (>= 5 wt%) which informed about a reduction of stacks intercalated structure leading to a higher degree of delamination and a larger increase of aspect ratio of clay. The rheological properties suggest that the extent of a percolation network can be enhanced by increasing the degree of exfoliation/intercalation at fixed clay content. The tensile and thermal properties were also found to be improved in all cases.