The separation of nanofiller and microstructural contributions to nanocomposite performance is reported through studies of four families of compatible polyamide / clay systems. The chosen nanofiller is an organically modified montmorillonite (Southern Clay Products Cloisite 30B), while the polyamides include two semi-crystalline materials (polyamides 6 and 12) and two amorphous materials (a co-polyamide 6 and a co-polyamide 12). For each polyamide, nanocomposites containing up to 1 vol% of inorganic material were twin-screw extrusion compounded and injection-molded and their mechanical properties assessed.Nanoclay addition increased elastic modulus more in amorphous systems than semi-crystalline systems, with decreases in elongation at break in all cases. In addition to traditional tensile testing, measurements of adiabatic heating during plastic deformation were performed to assess changes in deformation mechanism. In the amorphous systems, filler content was the dominant facture, but in semi-crystalline systems, microstructure was more important. These results have implications for polymer nanocomposites more broadly.

Polyamide-clay nanocomposites: Effect of matrix microstructure

245th National Meeting (2013)

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