Polymer/inorganic compound nanocomposites

The synthesis of polymer/inorganic compound nanocomposites, accomplished by multistep reactions in solutions, has been bothered by the serious problem of coagulating inorganic particles, espedaUy, fine metal particles in the polymer matrices [78-81]. In order to prevent coagulation, El-Shall and coworkers utilized... 

In practice, an infinite variety of polymer/inorganic particle combinations can be envisaged. This article has attempted to summarize the most important issues to be considered for successful formation of such nanocomposite colloids. The ability to tailor the affinity between the organic and inorganic parts is the key to a happy marriage between these two naturally incompatible compounds. However, despite the considerable advances, excitement, and promise of O/I composite latexes, substantial fundamental research is still necessary to provide a deeper understanding of current synthetic methods, develop new processes, and enable further exploitation of these materials. 

The synthesis of polymer nanocomposites is an integral aspect of polymer nanotechnology. By inserting the nanometric inorganic compounds, the properties of polymers improve and hence this has a lot of applications depending upon the inorganic material present in the polymers. The improvements obtained in day/PP nanocomposite structure can make this commercial thermoplastic polymer more suitable for automotive, construction and packaging applications. Different alkyl ammonium surfactants and compatibilizer was used to produce layered silicate/PP nanocomposites by the same melt intercalation technique. 

Composites have been prepared by rather different methods due to the great variety of inorganic and organic materials used. (See also Sect. 2.5. and Chap. 7) Lamellar nanocomposites consisting of layered inorganic compounds and conducting polymers display novel properties which result from the molecular-level interactions of two dissimilar chemical components. The intercalative polymerization of aniline in an a-RuCL host has recently been reported. The insertion of aniline into a-RuCls has been executed by soaking the a-RuCL crystals in aniline or ani-... 

Characterization of Nanocomposite Microstructure. Mixing clay with a polymer does not necessarily lead to a nanocomposite. Elaboration strategies are aimed at monitoring dispersion of the inorganic compound at the nanometer level, that is down to the elementary clay platelet. Figure 2 provides a schematic illustration of the various microstructures readily achievable, namely a conventional fllled polymer with clay particles in the micrometer range, an... 

Under microwave irradiation, in situ polymerization constitutes an alternative method for preparing poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites. LDHs are also known as anionic clays or hydrotalcite-like compounds. To overcome the lack of compatibility between PET and LDHs that contain purely inorganic anions, LDHs were modified with dodecyl sulfate prior to sample preparation. The preparation time was considerably reduced, and the inorganic filler was well dispersed and exfoliated in the polymer matrix. The nanocomposites thus obtained were thermally more stable than original PET,... 

Generally, the inorganic materials used to prepare the nanocomposites mainly include layered silicate clay, layered compounds, metal powder, and a variety of inorganic oxides. In our research works, nanosized zinc oxide, iron oxide, silica, and YIG particles were synthesized and used to prepare a variety of polymer nanocomposites, giving the composite materials many new features. This chapter based on our research discusses the methods of preparation and characterization of the polymer-inorganic nanocomposites. 

To fabricate different polymer layers in a device using solution based techniques, mutually exclusive solvents have to be identified, which is often very difficult. CVD eliminates these difficulties and excellent heterojunctions and multilayered films can be fabricated relatively easily. Also, the capability to co-deposit compounds can be achieved. This ease of co-depositing compounds has enabled the synthesis of several inorganic-organic hybrids, which can also be tailored as nanocomposites at the molecular level. 

Nanocomposites of iron oxide and silicate were also synthesized for the degradation of azo-dye Orange II (see Table 7) [388, 389]. To improve the sorption capacity, clays were modified in different ways (e.g. treatment by inorganic and organic compounds). Organoclays have recently attracted lots of attention in a number of applications, for example, dithiocarbamate-anchored polymer/organosmectite for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous media (see Table 7) [390]. 

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