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Study on morphology and microstructure development of PA6/LDPE/organoclay nanocomposites
Author(s) -
Khoshkava Vahid,
Dini Maryam,
Nazockdast Hossein
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.33970
Subject(s) - organoclay , low density polyethylene , materials science , nanocomposite , microstructure , composite material , polyamide , dynamic mechanical analysis , polymer
The aim of this work was to study the morphology and microstructure development of the polymer blend nanocomposite samples. The samples were prepared by melt compounding, consisting of the melt intercalation and melt blending processes, in an internal mixer at temperature of 250°C. The XRD characteristic peaks of the organoclay were almost disappeared in the polyamide (PA6)/Organoclay and PA6/low density polyethylene (LDPE)/organoclay samples. The TEM results revealed a partially exfoliated type microstructure in which the tactoids and/or platelets were finely dispersed in PA6 matrix. The results of the melt linear viscoelastic measurements showed that most of the organoclay in PA6/LDPE/Organoclay were preferentially dispersed in PA6 matrix. The scanning electron microscopy results showed nonterminal low frequency behavior in storage modulus indicating much smaller LDPE particle size in the PA6/PE (85/15) nanocomposite samples compared to that in the simple blend. This could mainly be attributed to the hindrance induced reduction of the coalesance, the interfacial enhancement, and thermodynamic compatibility all caused by high aspect ratio organoclay platelets. The PA6/LDPE/organoclay samples exhibited a pronounced viscosity upturn and nonterminal storage modulus ( G ') with even greater extent than those observed for PA6/organoclay samples. These results were considered as indications that the presence of LDPE dispersed phase can have an enhancing effect on development of three‐dimensional network structure in the polymer blend nanocomposite samples. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012