Polyazomethine/nylon-6 Composite By In-situ Polymerization

In this paper, three kinds of different chemical structure of polyazomethine (PAM)/ nylon-6(PA-6) composites were prepared by means of in-situ polymerization, whose thermal property and mechanical properties were improved obviously, and, a series of sub-micro morphology structure and properties were characterized as well.First, the preparation process of PA-6 was optimized, then, by sollusion polymerization, three kinds of polyazomethines, i.e., PAM1, PAM2 and PAM3 were prepared from Terephthalaldehyde and l,6-Hexanediamine,4,4 -Diaminediphenyl ether, p-Phenylenediamine.It is the first time that PAM was an annihibitor to the polymerization of PA-6 was put forward, and the preparation process of composites at different PAM content was optimized via polymerization time as the parameter, so that composites and PA-6 were comparable, at the same time, further study was carried out by mechanical properties' characterization.The studies of the structure of composites by FT-IR, UV, WAXD and SEM showed that rigid rod polymer(PAM) was compounded, what' more, the crystalline morphology and apparent crystallinity of PA-6 were changed by PAM, but it could not changed the a crystal form of PA-6. The analysis of sub-macro morphology structure by SEM and TEM showed that both the strengthening method and toughening method of composite and the better dispersion of PAM in the PA-6 matrix.Compared with pure PA-6, the thermal and mechanical properties of composites were improved obviously at a very small amount of PAM loading, the Tgs of the composites, at different kind of PAM, but at the same content, i.e., 5wt%, were improved by 6-9℃, TGA curves moved to higher temperature, heat decomposition temperature, storage modulus, impact strength, tensile strength and heat stability were also improved obviously. The tensile strength of PAM/PA-6 was improved by 27-36%, and the impact strength was improved by 9-117%. In conclusion, both the effects of strengthening and toughening to composites andimproving of heat stability were outstanding.