Poly vinylidene Fluoride-clay Nanocomposites

Pramoda, K., Mohamed, A., Phang, I. Y., Liu. T., (2005) Crystal transformation and thermomechanical properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/clay nanocomposites. Polymer International, Vol. 54, No. 1, (April 2004)pp. 226-232, ISSN 1097-0126. 

Priya L and Jog J P (2002) Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/clay nanocomposites prepared by melt intercalation crystallization and dynamic mechanical behavior studies, J Polym Sd Polym Phys 40 1682-1689. 

Patro, T.U., Mhalgi, M.V., Khakhar, D.V., and Misra, A. (2008) Studies on poly (vinylidene fluoride)-clay nanocomposites effect of different clay modifiers. Polymer, 49, 3486-3499. 

Prasanth, R., Shubha, N., Hng, H.H., Srinivasan, M., Effect of nano-clay on ionic conductivity and electrochemical properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride) based nanocomposite porous polymer membranes and their application as polymer electrolyte in lithium ion batteries, Eur. Polym. J., 2013,49, 307-318. 

The organic-inorganic hybrid materials have shown significant increases in properties compared to the conventional composites or neat polymers. The degree of dispersion of nanofiUers in a polymer matrix and the processing method play a key role on the final properties of the materials. Key objectives of researches are to design nanocomposites with enhanced properties at low filler contents. Different modified clays have been used in view of these objectives [31,52], There are reports on the use of ammonium-treated layered silicates [52,53], whereas the use of thermostable ILs such as pyridinium, imidazolium, or phosphonium is poorly reported. However, their combinations with poly(styrene) (PS) [54], PE [55], PP [56], poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) [57], and PET matrices [58] have been reported in the literature. 

The value of melting enthalpy, measured by the DSC method, is commonly used to calculate the degree of crystallinity. In poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-OMMT nanocomposites, the degree of crystallinity continuously decreased with the increasing clay content [30]. A decrease in the degree of crystallinity has also been reported to occur in polyethylene [31], low-density polyethylene (LDPE) [32], poly(vinylidene fluoride) [33], and polyamide 6 [34] nanocomposites reinforced with OMM or with bentonite clays. 

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