MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYCAPROLACTONE/CLAY NANOCOMPOSITES FILMS

L. LUDUEÑA; V. ALVAREZ; A. VAZQUEZ

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Conferencia; 3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS, COMAT 2005; 2005

National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina - University of Perugia, Italy

The aim of this work was to determine the optimal processing parameters to produce polymer/clay nanocomposites films in order to achieve the highest mechanical properties. Nanocomposites with 5, 7.5 and 10 wt. % of clay were Prepared by exfoliation adsorption with two different solvents, dichloromethane and a mixture of 50%v/v of dimethylformamide and dichloromethane for 5, 10, 15 and 20 min of ultrasonic bath. Several strategies have been considered to prepare polymer layered silicate nanocomposites. We selected exfoliationadsortion technique. In this process, the layered silicate is exfoliated into single layers using a solvent in which the polymer is soluble. It is well known that such layered silicates, owing to theweak forces that stack the layers together can be easily dispersed in an adequate solvent. The polymer then adsorbs onto the delaminated sheets and when the solvent is evaporated, the sheets reassemble, sandwiching the polymer to form, in the best case, an ordered multilayer structure.