In-situ Polymerization of exfoliated structure PA6/organo-clay nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract Montmorillonite (MMT) was modified with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) to obtain organomontmorillonite (OMMT) by stirring and pulsed ultrasonic mixing. Polyamide 6 (PA6)/OMMT nanocomposites were then prepared via in-situ polymerization.The resulting OMMT and PA6/OMMT nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results suggested that the OMMT interlayer distance was greatly increased to 3.13 nm due to CTAB being inter-calated into the MMT galleries. The OMMT interlayer distance was further enlarged to 10-20 nm during the polymerization process. The OMMT layers were exfoliated into nanoscale layers and uniformly dispersed in the molten ∈-caprolactam and PA6 matrix, and exfoliated structure nanocomposites were formed.