The Study Of Inorganic Clay-thermoset Nanocomposites

A convenient method was employed to modify the attapulgite(ATT) clay by bonding the poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether(PEGDE) onto it's surface.The result of FT-IR spectroscopy showed that the new absorption of 3615cm^-1 and 989cm^-1 are attributed to the hydrongen bonding and chelation respectively. Thermogravimetic analysis showed that the amount of PEGDE grafted on ATT was influenced by the PEGDE concentration in acetone solution.The XRD result showed that the PEGDE had inserted between the layered ATT.A novel biobased nanocomposite was prepared by blending surface modified natural clay with epoxidized soybean oil(ESO) and cyanate ester resin(CE).The influence of PEGDE concentration and ATT content was discussed.Scanning electron microscope(SEM) results showed that nanoscaled ATT dispersed in the blend of epoxidized soybean oil(ESO) and cyanate ester resin(CE) aider curing.The TGA results showed that the thermostability of the nanocomposites was influenced little with addition of ATT.The moduli and Tg of the composites were enhanced with addition of ATT.The nanocomposites with 3wt%ATT showed the best performance. The tensile strength of the nanocomposites had been enforced,at the same time,the high elongation had been maintained compared with the ESO/CE blends we had reported previously.In the ATT/PPO/Epoxy blends,the SEM results showed that the incorporation of a small amount of ATT into the blends could change the final morphology,especially for the blend with 80phr PPO.The results of OM and TRLS showed that the pinned ATT particles slowed the interfacial motion and decreased the size of the phase domains and delayed the occurrence of phase separation.