The Effect of Clay Loading on the Morphology and Properties of Poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate)/Clay Nanocomposites

✍ Scribed by Nagi Greesh; Patrice C. Hartmann; Ronald D. Sanderson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 413 KB
• Volume: 294
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1438-7492
• DOI: 10.1002/mame.200800285

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of both the clay loading and the monomer feed rate on the morphology and properties of poly(styrene‐co‐butyl acrylate)‐clay nanocomposites prepared in emulsion polymerization. Analysis by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the nanocomposites prepared by batch polymerization showed that the polymer clay nanocomposites (PCNs) with 1–3 wt.‐% clay loading resulted in intercalated structures, while exfoliated structures were obtained at 10 wt.‐% clay loading. The polymerization was also carried out with semi‐batch polymerization. The morphology, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of nanocomposites obtained were found to be more strongly dependent on the clay/polymer ratio than the monomer feed rate.

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