This article summarizes some of the highlights of newest developments in polypropylene (PP) clay nanocomposite research. Different property improvements, including mechanical performance enhancements, achieved by melt compounding of organoclay materials with PP and/or PP‐g‐MA are presented.

The cationic complexes with hexacoordinate silicon(IV), tris[1-oxopyridine-2-olato(1±)]silicon(IV) trifluoromethanesulfonate (4), 4´1/ 2 C 5 H 5 NO 2 , tris[1-oxopyridine-2-olato(1±)]silicon(IV) ethyl sulfate±ethanol (5´EtOH), and tris[1-oxopyridine-2-olato(1±)]silicon(IV) isopropyl sulfate (6), were synthesized. The identities of 4, 4´1/ 2 C 5 H 5 NO 2 , 5´EtOH, and 6 were established by elemental analyses (C, H, N, S), mass-spectrometric studies (FAB MS) as well as solid-state ( 29 Si) and solution ( 1 H, 13 C, 19 F, 29 Si) NMR experiments. In addition, 4´1/ 2 C 5 H 5 NO 2 was structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

In former studies of the preparation of polypropylene(PP)‐clay nanocomposites, different types of layered silicates were used. However, the obtained results were not comparable due to different preparation conditions and types of silicates. The aim of this work was the investigation of the influence of different layered silicates on the properties of the resulting nanocomposites. FT‐IR‐spectra, SAXS, TEM micrographs, elemental analysis, mechanical properties and surface tension measurements were used for the comparison of the four different layered silicates under investigation.

Treatment of the silanes (EtO)3Si(CH2)2SCH2C(O)OSiMe3 and (EtO)3Si(CH2)3OSiMe3 with two molar equivalents of 1‐hydroxy‐2‐pyridone in acetonitrile yielded the neutral hexacoordinate silicon complexes bis[μ‐(3‐thiapentanoato(2−)‐C5,O′:C5′,O)]tetrakis[1‐oxopyridin‐2‐olato(1−)]disilicon(IV) (6) and bis[1‐oxopyridin‐2‐olato(1−)][propanolato(2−)‐C3,O]silicon(IV) (8), respectively. The compounds 6·2CH3CN and 8 were characterized by solid‐state 29Si VACP/MAS NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (FAB MS), and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction.