1H NMR T 1 Relaxation of Polymer/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites with Different Clay Contents and Degrees of Exfoliation: Magnetic Field Effects

Abstract

Abstract The initial stage of the NMR 1H T 1 relaxation of well-defined polypropylene-montmorillonite nanocomposites was investigated at two different magnetic fields of 0.54 and 7.05 T. At 0.54 T, two periods can be distinguished during the first 30 ms after a saturation pulse train. Both periods scale linearly with the square root of the recovery time. The first period occurs during the first 1 ms and is attributed to direct dipolar relaxation of nuclei in immediate proximity to the clay. It is caused by paramagnetic impurities within the clay and is characterized by a magnetization recovery curve with a slope proportional to the concentration of these impurities. The second period occurs at 4 to 30 ms after saturation and is due to spin diffusion between the sink, formed by the initial relaxation at the clay surface, and the surrounding polymer matrix, which relaxes at a much slower rate. The second period is characterized by a magnetization recovery curve with a slope proportional to the effective surface area of the clay, from which a degree of exfoliation may be determined. At 7.05 T, only a single relaxation recovery period is observed. At this higher magnetic field, the direct relaxation is characterized by a substantially longer relaxation time so that it is not distinguished from the spin-diffusion process. As with the slope of the second period of the magnetization recovery at 0.54 T, the slope of the magnetization recovery curve at 7.05 T can be utilized to extract a degree of exfoliation.