Influence of Polymer-Clay Interfacial Interactions on the Ignition Time of Polymer/Clay Nanocomposites

• Main Authors: Zope, Indraneel Suhas, Dasari, Aravind, Yu, Zhong-Zhen
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Time-to-ignition; Thermo-oxidation
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/89003; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44800
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Metal ions present on smectite clay (montmorillonite) platelets have preferential reactivity towards peroxy/alkoxy groups during polyamide 6 (PA6) thermal decomposition. This changes the decomposition pathway and negatively affects the ignition response of PA6. To restrict these interfacial interactions, high-temperature-resistant polymers such as polyetherimide (PEI) and polyimide (PI) were used to coat clay layers. PEI was deposited on clay by solution-precipitation, whereas PI was deposited through a solution-imidization-precipitation technique before melt blending with PA6. The absence of polymer-clay interfacial interactions has resulted in a similar time-to-ignition of PA6/PEI-clay (133 s) and PA6/PI-clay (139 s) composites as neat PA6 (140 s). On the contrary, PA6 with conventional ammonium-based surfactant modified clay has showed a huge drop in time-to-ignition (81 s), as expected. The experimental evidences provided herein reveal the role of the catalytic activity of clay during the early stages of polymer decomposition.