Exertion of Inhibiting Effect by Aluminosilicate Layers on Swelling of Solution Blended EVA/Clay Nanocomposite

✍ Scribed by Monoj Pramanik; Himadri Acharya; Suneel K. Srivastava

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 152 KB
• Volume: 289
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1438-7492
• DOI: 10.1002/mame.200400021

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer/dodecyl ammonium ion intercalated montmorillonite (12Me‐MMT) nanocomposites were swelled in xylene under atmospheric condition. Swelling index of these nanocomposites decreased with filler loading indicating that the solvent uptake of these nanocomposites was inversely related to the filler contents. The volume fractions of nanocomposites showed an increasing trend with filler concentration because of unswelling effect exerted by aluminosilicate layers. The cross‐link density was determined using the Flory‐Rehner equation and it was observed that the cross‐link density of these nanocomposites also showed an increasing trend with increasing filler loading. Free energy change (Δ__G__~mix~) and the change in entropy (Δ__S__~mix~) on swelling of EVA/12Me‐MMT nanocomposites in xylene were calculated and these values reaffirmed that the interaction between polymer chains and silicate layers was very strong which induced remarkable inhibiting ability on EVA matrix when swelled in xylene.

TEM photograph of EVA/12Me‐MMT nanocomposite containing 8 wt.‐% 12Me‐MMT.

magnified imageTEM photograph of EVA/12Me‐MMT nanocomposite containing 8 wt.‐% 12Me‐MMT.