THERMAL PROPERTIES OF POLYVINYL ALCOHOL-CLAY COMPOSITE HYDROGELS

ROMINA OLLIER; LAURA SANCHEZ; JIMENA GONZÁLEZ; VERA A. ALVAREZ

Bahía Blanca

Conferencia; VII International Conference on Composite Materials; 2018

Many properties of polymeric-based materials are ultimately governed by their thermal resistance because they will be gradually affected if the degradation process begins. PVA is a water soluble biodegradable polymer with many applications. Clays constitute good raw materials since most of them are abundant and economic. Enhanced thermal stability for several PVA-clay nanocomposites has been reported. The physical properties improvement achieved on the final nanocomposite is strongly dependent on the clay?polymer compatibility as well as on the corresponding processing conditions.In the present work PVA-bentonite nanocomposite hydrogels were prepared by the freezing/thawing (F-T) physical crosslinking method. These hydrogels have been recently chemically, morphologically and mechanically analyzed1. Specifically, in the present work, the thermal degradation behavior of PVA-bentonite hydrogels will be deeply studied.