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A New Strategy to Exfoliate Silicone Rubber/Clay Nanocomposites
Author(s) -
Ma Jun,
Yu ZhongZhen,
Kuan HsuChiang,
Dasari Arovind,
Mai YiuWing
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200500007
Subject(s) - silicone rubber , nanocomposite , materials science , exfoliation joint , compounding , siloxane , micrograph , polymer , composite material , silicone , polymer clay , intercalation (chemistry) , slurry , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , scanning electron microscope , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , graphene , engineering
Summary: A new strategy was developed to prepare disorderly exfoliated nanocomposites, in which a soft siloxane surfactant with a weight‐average molecular weight ( $\overline M _{\rm w}$ ) of 1 900 was adopted to modify the clay. The modified clay slurry was then mixed with silicone rubber by hand, and exfoliation was achieved. The proposed mechanism thereof was verified by TEM and XRD. The physical entanglement of the soft siloxane surfactant plays a vital role in the diffusion and intercalation of the matrix molecules during the compounding of the slurry‐polymer mixture. This simple method is applicable to other silicone‐based materials reinforced by clay.TEM micrograph of silicone rubber/clay‐sil nanocomposite.