Preparation and characterization of PE and PE-g-MAH/montmorillonite nanocomposites

• DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2004.07.009
• Publication Date: 2004-09-10T13:21:56Z
• Authors: Hongbo Zhai; Weibing Xu; Hanyang Guo; Zhengfa Zhou; Shijun Shen; Qiusheng Song
• Keywords: Thermogravimetric analysis; Maleic anhydride

Polyethylene (PE) was chemically modified with grafting maleic anhydride (MAH) monomer on its backbone at first. Then the melt-direct intercalation method was employed to prepare two kinds of nanocomposites, polyethylene (PE)/organic montmorillonite (Org-MMT) and maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (PE-g-MAH)/Org-MMT nanocomposites. X-ray diffractometery (XRD) was used to investigate the intercalation effect and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe the dispersion of Org-MMT interlayers in matrixes. The results show that an intercalated structure would be acquired on mixing the PE and Org-MMT; and an almost exfoliated system would be obtained by mixing the PE-g-MAH and Org-MMT. Moreover, further measurements via thermogravimetric (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that both of the nanocomposites had a higher thermal decomposition temperature and a higher crystallization temperature when compared to the original matrix. At the same time, the thermal and crystal properties for the PE-g-MAH prepared in this experiment are also discussed.