Preparation and Rheological Characteristics of Solvent-Cast Poly(ethylene oxide)/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Abstract

The organophilic montmorillonite clay and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) nanocomposites were intercalated by a solvent casting method using chloroform as the cosolvent. The prepared nanocomposites were characterized by an X‐ray diffraction method to examine their microstructure. Rheological properties of both the PEO/clay nanocomposites and the immiscible PEO/clay blends were investigated via a rotational rheometer in steady shear mode with a parallel plate geometry. The shear thinning viscosity data were fitted with the Carreau model, which showed that steady shear viscosity increases with increasing clay loading. The hysteresis phenomenon is observed to be enhanced with clay loading. PEO/clay nanocomposites exhibit higher zero‐shear‐rate viscosity and sharper shear thinning behaviors than immiscible PEO/clay blends.

Melt Intercalation in Montmorillonite/Polystyrene Nanocomposites

“…Intercalation of PNC might not reach an equilibrium state after completion of the compounding experiment. Since entanglements of polymer chains and arrangement of the clay are not permanent and are altered by flow and relaxation processes, any disturbance, such as shear may disrupt the intercalated platelets and cause collapse [33]. Furthermore, the lack of strong interaction between the ammonium modifier present in C10A and PS chains limits PS intercalation.…”

A Study on the Structure and Adhesive Properties of Epoxy-Silicate Composites

“…The best properties of nanocomposites are achieved exactly in the case of exfoliated structures [4,21,22]. For this purpose, various methods are employed, for example, modification of filler surface to improve its compatibility with an organic matrix [4,15,16,18] or blending and preparations of composites. One of blending variants is the use of ultrasound.…”

“…Also, it was intended to estimate the dispersion quality of particles and the structure of the nanocomposites obtained. Since the rheological properties of suspensions with different particles are rather sensitive to the structure of the system, the size of particles, their shape, and conditions on their surface, rheology gives interesting possibilities for evaluating the dispersity of particles in polymers, as shown in [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Relationship between structural evolution and rheological measurements for polymer + organoclay nanocomposites

“…4(a), the complex viscosity of BAP/OMMT nanocomposites showed a distinct shear thinning behaviour in the range of 6 to 15 wt.-% at low frequencies, while it showed a Newtonian plateau below 6 wt.-%. This shear thinning behaviour is indicative of a solid-like structure and implies the percolation threshold, showing the onset of network formation [27]. With a plot of the complex viscosity in log scale vs. clay content in linear scale, we can make a better interpretation of the viscosity increase with clay content.…”