Fabrication of Nylon 6-Montmorillonite Clay Nanocomposites with Enhanced Structural and Mechanical Properties by Solution Compounding

Ahmed M Abdel-Gawad; Adham R Ramadan; Araceli Flores; Amal M K Esawi

doi:10.3390/polym14214471

Fabrication of Nylon 6-Montmorillonite Clay Nanocomposites with Enhanced Structural and Mechanical Properties by Solution Compounding

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Oct 22;14(21):4471. doi: 10.3390/polym14214471.

Authors

Ahmed M Abdel-Gawad¹, Adham R Ramadan², Araceli Flores³, Amal M K Esawi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, The American University in Cairo, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt.
² Department of Chemistry, The American University in Cairo, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt.
³ Department of Polymer Physics, Elastomers and Applications Energy, Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP), CSIC, Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

Melt compounding has been favored by researchers for producing nylon 6/montmorillonite clay nanocomposites. It was reported that high compatibility between the clay and the nylon6 matrix is essential for producing exfoliated and well-dispersed clay particles within the nylon6 matrix. Though solution compounding represents an alternative preparation method, reported research for its use for the preparation of nylon 6/montmorillonite clay is limited. In the present work, solution compounding was used to prepare nylon6/montmorillonite clays and was found to produce exfoliated nylon 6/montmorillonite nanocomposites, for both organically modified clays with known compatibility with nylon 6 (Cloisite 30B) and clays with low/no compatibility with nylon 6 (Cloisite 15A and Na⁺-MMT), though to a lower extent. Additionally, solution compounding was found to produce the more stable α crystal structure for both blank nylon6 and nylon6/montmorillonite clays. The process was found to enhance the matrix crystallinity of blank nylon6 samples from 36 to 58%. The resulting composites were found to possess comparable mechanical properties to similar composites produced by melt blending.

Keywords: montmorillonite; nanocomposites; nylon 6; solution compounding; static melt annealing.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Yousef Jameel Science and Technology Research Center at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. AF’s contribution was funded by the MICINN (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), Spain under grant PID2020-117573GB-I00. The APC was funded by the American University in Cairo.