ANALYSIS OF INSULATING NANOCOMPOSITE POLYMER

V.Kartheek,Student,GITAM University,C h.N.S.Kartheek ,Student, GITAM University A.Tej Abhilash,Student, GITAM University,G.Satya Chandu, Student, GITAM University

Abstract:
The Study of physical properties of polymer nanocomposites mechanical failure and thermal softening in polyamide (PA, nylon) 6 nanocomposites. The nanocomposites exhibited failure due to thermal softening when the maximum local temperature of the specimens subjected to loading reached the glass transition temperature. Further, the stress (S) versus life (N) test data of polymer nanocomposites are well described by Basquinslaw.

INTRODUCTION
Polymer/layered silicates nanocomposites have received a great deal of attention since their first demonstration by the Toyota group in 1987 [1]. These nanocomposites exhibit superior properties such as higher tensile strength, modulus, heat resistance, light weight, and less permeability to gas at a lower level of loading relative to conventionally scaled composites.Nowadays the preparation system of layered silicate nanocomposites is very abundant, many surfactants are used to modify montmorillonite [2,3], such as aminododecanoic acid, octadecylammonium etc., while no work has been reported to guide the selection of surfactants for different polymers and different processing methods systematically.Nylon 66 is a

versatile engineering plastics, the successful development of nylon 6 nanocomposites inspired us to study nylon 66 montmoriilonite nano c omposites. There is few reports involving nylon 66 nanocomposites some of which show that relative to nylon 6, nylon 66/montmorillonite hybrids show less enhancement [4]. According to the classical theories of filler reinforcement [5], the extent of property enhancement depends on many factors including the aspect ratio of the filler, its degree of dispersion and the adhesion at the filler/matrix interface.It is concluded that for polar polymer, such as nylon 66, the combination with pristine clay produces the highest binding energy of all and nanocomposites produced from untreated clays should be the toughest. Though the assumption that the clay platelets are exfoliated into individual platelets does not reflect the actual state of the clay platelets in the nanocomposites, the result is still illuminating.Because montmorillonite has neither good interaction with organic polymers to achieve good dispersion nor adequate adhesion, it is certainly not applicable for preparation of nanocomposites by melt compounding with untreated clay [1]. Based on this concept, in order to maximize the total potential energy and to match the polarity of nylon 66, montmorillonite was co-treated with octadecylammonium and aminoundecanoic acid in this paper. Then nylon 66 nanocomposites were prepared with

different co-treated montmorillonites via melt compounding and effect of montmorillonite on properties of nanocomposites was investigated and analyzed.

intermixed with chlorite, muscovite, illite, cookeite, and kaolinite.

Nano composites:
Mixture of Polyamides Montmorillonite and

Fig1: Nano composite

Montmorillonite:
Montmorillonite is a very soft phyllosilicate group of minerals that typically form in microscopic crystals, forming a clay. Montmorillonite, a member of the smectite family, is a 2:1 clay, meaning that it has 2 tetrahedral sheets sandwiching a central octahedral sheet. The particles are plateshaped with an average diameter of approximately one micrometre. Members of this group include saponite.Montmorillonite is the main constituent of the volcanic ash weathering product, bentonite.The water content of montmorillonite is variable and it increases greatly in volume when it absorbs water. Potassium, iron, and other cations are common substitutes, the exact ratio of cations varies with source. It often occurs

Preparation of organophilic montmorillonite [1] 120 g of montmorillonite were dispersed in 1200 ml of distilled water by vigorous stirring at 80 _C and the montmorillonite dispersion was derived; slightly excessive amounts of octadecylammonium and aminoundecanoic acid with different molar ratio (1/1, 1/2), acidified by appropriate amount of concentrated hydrochloric acid, were dispersed into 600 ml alcohol and 600 ml distilled water separately, and the solutions were called octadecylammonium alcoholic solution and aminoundecanoic acid aqueous solution, respectively; Then the latter two were added to the montmorillonite dispersion and the resultant suspension was vigorously stirred for another 8 h at 80 _C. The co-treated montmorillonites were repeatedly washed by alcohol and distilled water at 50 _C until no AgCl precipitate occurred at room temperature when the filtrates were titrated with 0.1 N AgNO3. The filtered cakes were then dried in vacuo at 80 _C for 12 h. The dried cakes were ground and screened with a 325-mesh sieve to obtain the co-treated montmorillonites and were termed M11 and M12, respectively. The organophilic montmorillonites mono-treated by octadecylammonium or aminoundecanoic acid were prepared as widely described and were termed M10 and M01 here. All the dried organophilic montmorillonites were kept in a sealed desiccators and ready for next experiments.

Polyamides:
Materials

Nylon 66 used in the present work is a commercially available material with Mw of 14,000. The sodium montmorillonite (NaMMT) is refined and ground to an average

particle size of 12 lm with a cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 115 meq/100 g. Octadecylammonium, 11-aminoundecanoic acid and other reagents are analyticallypure and are used without further purification.

Preparation of organophilic montmorillonite [1]

120 g of montmorillonite were dispersed in 1200 ml of distilled water by vigorous stirring at 80 _C and the montmorillonite dispersion was derived; slightly excessive amounts of octadecylammonium and aminoundecanoic acid with different molar ratio (1/1, 1/2), acidified by appropriate amount of concentrated hydrochloric acid, were dispersed into 600 ml alcohol and 600 ml distilled water separately, and the solutions were called octadecylammonium alcoholic solution and aminoundecanoic acid aqueous solution, respectively; Then the latter two were added to the montmorillonite dispersion and the resultant suspension was vigorously stirred for another 8h at 80 _C. The co-treated montmorillonites were repeatedly washed by alcohol and distilled water at 50 _C until no AgCl precipitate occurred at room temperature when the filtrates were titrated with 0.1 N AgNO3. The filtered cakes were then dried in vacuo at 80 _C for 12 h. The dried cakes were ground and screened with a 325-mesh sieve to obtain the co-treated montmorillonites and were termed M11 and M12, respectively. The organophilic montmorillonites mono-treated by octadecylammonium or aminoundecanoic acid were prepared as widely described and were termed M10 and M01 here. All the dried organophilic montmorillonites were kept in a sealed desiccators and ready for next experiments.

Prior to each processing step, all nylon 66 containing materials were dried in vacuo for at least 24 h at 80 _C to avoid moisture induced degradation reactions. Composites were prepared by melt compounding using a twin extruder with zone I at 265 _C, zone II at 265 _C, zone III at 265 _C, zone IV at 265 _C, zone V at 265 _C, and head temperature at 270 _C. For comparison, neat nylon 66 was also extruded in the twin extruder at the same processing conditions. The dried pellets were injected to standard testing specimens for characterization and tests.

Preparation of nanocomposites

Layer silicate organic structure

Surface treatment of clay minerals:
Clay is hydrophilic by nature. This hydrophilic nature can affect the miscibility of clay with an organophilic polymer. Therefore the surface of the clay is treated to make it hydrophobic and more organophilic. This is a cation exchange reaction where inorganic cations such as Ca2+, K+ and Na+ are replaced by organically modified cations, such as alkyl ammonium (R-NH3+) groups. R is long aliphatic residue. The cationic head of the 24 aliphatic group is found close to the surface layer due to the presence of negative charge on the layer and the tail without charge is found away from the layer. Four types of structures are possible depending on the packing density, temperature and chain length of the aliphatic groups. These are When the alkyl ammonium chains lie parallel to the host layers a lateral monolayer or lateral bilayer is formed. If alkyl ammonium chains radiate away from the host layers, an extended paraffin-type monolayer or paraffin-type bilayer structure is formed

Lateral monolayer

Lateral bilayer

[1] Kaviratna PD, Pinnavaia TJ and Schroeder PA, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 1996; 57:12: 1897. [2] Sherman LM, Plastics Technology, June 1999; 52 [3] Brundle R. C., Evans C., Wilson S., Encyclopedia of Materials Characterization, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992; 60-69. [4] Hackett E, Manias E and Giannelis EP, J. Chemical Phys. 1998; 108:17: 7410. Paraffin type bilayer [5] Usuki A, Kojima Y, Kawasumi M, Okada A, Fukushima Y, Kurauchi T and Kamigaito O, J. Mater. Res. 1993; 8:5: 1174 [6] Lan T, Kaviratna PD and Pinnavaia TJ, Chem. Mater. 1995; 7: 2144. [7] Vaia Ra, Vasudevan S, Krawiec W, Scanlan LG and Giannelis EP, Adv. Mater. 1995; 7:2: 154. [8]Messermith PB and Giannelis EP, J. Polymer Sci. 1995; 33: 1047. Intercalated dispersion of polymer nanocomposites

Conclusion:
Heat treatment and mechanical properties: when compared with normal PA 6,6 the composite perfoms will it has more melting temperature, tensile modulus and strength substainality increases and heat distortion temperature (HDT) increases by 23.2K

References