Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of Polyester/Nanoclay Nanocomposites: Microstructure-Mixing Strategy Correlati
- PDF / 410,435 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 432 x 648 pts Page_size
- 27 Downloads / 288 Views
Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of Polyester/Nanoclay Nanocomposites: Microstructure-Mixing Strategy Correlation Hamid Dalir 1, Rouhollah D. Farahani1, Vireya Nhim2, Benjamin Samson3, Martin Lévesque1 and Daniel Therriault1 1 Center for Applied Research on Polymers and Composites (CREPEC), Department of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, C.P. 6079, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3A7, CANADA. 2 School of Mechanical Engineering, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), 151 Boulevard Hôpital, Paris 75013, FRANCE. 3 Department of Mechanics, École Polytechnique de Paris, 32 Boulevard Victor, Paris 75015, FRANCE. ABSTRACT Different nanoclay mixing strategies using a three-roll mill and ultrasonication is proposed to obtain the desired polyester/nanoclay dispersion, intercalation, and exfoliation. The dispersion states of the modified nanoclay in polymer with 2, 4 and 6 wt% loading were characterized with X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and low and high magnification transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mechanical properties of the clayreinforced polyester nanocomposites were a function of the nature and the content of the clay in the matrix. The nanocomposite containing 4 wt% modified Cloisite® 15A exhibits excellent improvement in modulus (by ~51%) and tensile strength (by ~12%) with a decrease in fracture strain (by ~26%) and fracture energy (by ~17%). These mechanical characteristic changes can be attributed to the dispersion, intercalation, and exfoliation of the nanoclays inside the polyester matrix. INTRODUCTION Polymer/clay nanocomposite (PCN) is a class of material consisting of either thermoset, thermoplastics, rubber or co-polymers as matrix and nanoclay as the reinforcement fillers [1,2]. A combination of organic polymeric matrix and inorganic nano-layered clay platelets have lately evoked a great deal of academic and industrial research activities due to the formation of nanocomposite materials with significantly enhanced physical properties such as thermal properties (e.g., thermal stability [3], flame retardant [4], thermal conductivity [5]), mechanical properties (e.g., mechanical strength [6], hardness [7], abrasion resistance [8]), electrorheological properties [9], permeability properties (e.g., gas barrier [10], pervaporation [11]) and corrosion protection properties [12] of polymers. The thermomechanical responses of polymers are favorably altered by the addition of a trace amount of nanofillers. To obtain optimal nanocomposite formation, the following four structural parameters should be maximized: (1) the particle aspect ratio, (2) particle dispersion, (3) particle packing (or alignment), and (4) polymer to particle interfacial stress transfer [13–17]. Until now, many published research works have focused on the investigation of the mechanical properties of polyester resin-clay nanocomposites based on comparative studies [1825]. The addition of clay in the polyester usually leads to three different microstructures depend
Data Loading...
