Nanoadditives surface treatment, clay

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. 

In this chapter, an overview of the fundamentals of PNs is described, according to the author s understanding and experience as well as support from numerous references and review articles. The content of this chapter covers all kinds of inorganic nanoadditives, but, because the most widely investigated and thus understood nanoadditives used to enhance the thermal and fire resistance of the polymers are clays (natural or synthetic) followed by the CNTs and colloidal particles, the focus of the chapter is primarily on clays, particularly on the silicate clays and LDHs, as well as the CNTs. This includes structure, properties, and surface treatment of the nanoadditives, design of the modifiers, synthesis, characterization of the structure/morphology, and thermal and fire... 

Clays, natural or synthetic, are the most widely investigated and understood nanoadditives used to enhance the flame retardancy of polymers through nanocomposite technology, because of their unique properties, particularly the ease of surface treatment and application in polymer matrices. Clay can be cationic and anionic materials, in accordance with the charge on the clay layers. In this chapter, the focus is on two kinds of clays montmorillonite (MMT), a naturally occurring cationic clay that belongs to the smectite group of silicates, and LDH, an anionic clay that does occur naturally but for which the synthetic form is more common. Other clays will also be mentioned as appropriate. 

As an inorganic mineral, most unmodified nanoadditives are strongly hydrophilic and are generally compatible and miscible only with a few hydrophilic polymers, for instance, clay can only be made into PNs with polyethylene oxide),27 poly(vinyl alcohol),28 and a few other water soluble polymers. Most polymers are hydrophobic and thus they are neither compatible nor miscible with the unmodified nanoadditives, leading to an inability to achieve a PN with a good nanodispersion in most cases. Therefore, for most nanoadditives that have been used to prepare the PNs, an important and necessary feature is their surface treatment that provides compatibility to the nanoadditives and enables them to be uniformly dispersed (and/or separated into single nanoparticles) in the polymer matrix. 

Surface treatment of clays The surface treatment of the nanoadditives helps establish an interface with the polymer matrix and hence enhance the compatibility and/or the miscibility of the nanoadditive with the polymer matrix. In terms of the cationic silicate clay, such as MMT, the interface is... 

Solvent blending Solvent blending, also called solution intercalation in the case of clay and other nanolayers, involves both dispersing the nanoadditive and dissolving the matrix polymer in a solvent or a solvent mixture. Three parameters have been considered to be important, particularly for clays, in choosing the surface treatment of the nanoadditives with this process The structure of the modifier, its miscibility with the polymer, and its thermal stability. The miscibility of the modifier here has two meanings miscibility with both the final polymer and the solvent chosen to dissolve the polymer. The modifier structure and its miscibility are perhaps more important than the thermal... 

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