Experimental data on nanocomposite barrier performance

The experimental data on barrier performance of polymer-clay nanocomposites can be divided into three categories. The first group includes systems that fit the tortuous path model reasonably well. The second category includes composites that exhibit relative gas permeabilities that are inferior to the tortuous path model predictions. The last group includes composites that exceed the performance predicted by the model. The following discussion will give specific examples of each of these categories with explanations for each type of behavior. 

1 Examples of nanocomposites that fit the tortuous path model 

Examples of nanocomposites that fit the tortuous path model relatively well include work by Shah et al. [2] with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and ionomer, and by Gatos and Karger-Kocsis [3] with a nanocomposite of nitrile butyl rubber (NBR) and organofluorohectorite 

The next example is a nanocomposite of NBR with a fluorohectorite. In this composite the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and 

22 Nanocomposites that exhibit negative deviations from the tortnons path model 

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