The Role of Organo-Clay Characteristics on the Final Properties of Polycaprolactone/Clay Nanocomposites

L.N. LUDUEÑA; A. VAZQUEZ; V. A. ALVAREZ

Strasbourg

Conferencia; Hybrid Materials, Second International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials; 2011

Because of waste accumulation at the end of the life cycle of traditional polymer products, the development of environmental friendly, degradable, polymeric materials has attracted extensive interest. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a chemically synthesized polymer based on caprolactone units. It does not occur in nature but it is fully biodegradable. In order to obtain a competitive product, the PCL performance can be greatly enhanced with the addition of nanometer-size inorganic fillers (montmorillonite). The use of a non-polar polymer matrix force to take advance of the cation exchange capacity of the natural montmotillonite to change the sodic cations located into the galleries by large hydrophobic organo-modifiers.In this work, the effect of addition of different organo-modified clays on the behavior of PCL based nanocomposites prepared by melt intercalation was studied. This study contemplates morphological and thermal aspects, mechanical and barrier properties and also biodegradability.