Layered double hydroxides morphology

Provided in this chapter is an overview on the fundamentals of polymer nanocomposites, including structure, properties, and surface treatment of the nanoadditives, design of the modifiers, modification of the nanoadditives and structure of modified nanoadditives, synthesis and struc-ture/morphology of the polymer nanocomposites, and the effect of nanoadditives on thermal and fire performance of the matrix polymers and mechanism. Trends for the study of polymer nanocomposites are also provided. This covers all kinds of inorganic nanoadditives, but the primary focus is on clays (particularly on the silicate clays and the layered double hydroxides) and carbon nanotubes. The reader who needs to have more detailed information and/or a better picture about nanoadditives and their influence on the matrix polymers, particularly on the thermal and fire performance, may peruse some key reviews, books, and papers in this area, which are listed at the end of the chapter. 

This chapter reports the results of the literature that concerns the photooxidation of polymer nanocomposites. The published studies concern various polymers (PP, epoxy, ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM), PS, and so on) and different nanofillers such as organomontmorillonite or layered double hydroxides (LDH) were investigated. It is worthy to note that a specific attention was given to the interactions with various kinds of stabilizers and their efficiency to protect the polymer. One of the main objectives was to understand the influence of the nanofiller on the oxidation mechanism of the polymer and on the ageing of the nanocomposite material. Depending on the types of nanocomposite that were studied, the influence of several parameters such as morphology, processing conditions, and nature of the nanofiller was examined. 

Peng, H., Han, Y., Liu, T., Tjiu, W.C., He, C. Morphology and thermal degradation behavior of highly exfoliated CoAl-layered double hydroxide/polycaprolactone nanocomposites prepared by simple solution intercalation. Thermochim. Acta 502, 1-7 (2010)... 

JW Boclair, PS Braterman, F Yarberry. Morphologies of layered double hydroxides by homogeneous precipitation. Unpublished Work. Denton. TX University of North Texas, 1999. 

F. R. Costa, B. K. Satapathy, U. Wagenknecht, R. Weidisch, and G. Heinrich, Morphology and fracture behaviour of polyethylene/Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites. European Polymer Journal, 42 (2006), 2140-52. 

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