EFFECT OF EXTENSIONAL FLOW ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND FINAL PROPERTIES OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYESTER/CLAY NANOCOMPOSITES

LEANDRO N. LUDUEÑA; JOSÉ KENNY; ANALÍA VAZQUEZ; VERA A. ALVAREZ

Rosario

Congreso; SAM/CONAMET 2011; 2011

In this work we propose a route to enhance the mechanical properties of polymer/clay nanocomposites even when the clay dispersion degree inside the matrix is optimized. It has been widely demonstrated that processing techniques such as film stretching produce the alignment of the polymer chains as a consequence of the induced extensional flow. Extensional flow is also pre-sent on the vicinity of the mold wall of injection molded parts which also promotes polymer chains alignment on that regions. On the other hand, there are techniques such as compression molding which do not produce extensional flow, thus, polymer chains are not preferentially aligned. The hypothesis of this study is that the extensional flow that produce polymer chains alignment can also preferentially align clay platelets improving the mechanical properties of the polymer in that direction.