Temperature Dependence of Cellular Structure

According to the theory proposed by Suh and Colton, the rate of nucleation of cells per unit volume (N) can be written as 

In the case of homogeneous nucleation S(9) is unity (9 = 180°). The obtained values of the contact angle are 107.3° at 110 °C and 85.3° at 120 °C. The estimated reduction factor (S(9) = 0.4-0.7) was not so small when compared with the other nano-filler (e.g., carbon nanofingers, S(9)= 0.006) [64]. However, experimentally, nano-clay particles lead to an increase in Nc. 

For PLA/MMT-SBE foams prepared under the condition with low Tf ( 100-110 °C) and high pressure ( 28 MPa), the nanocomposite foams exhibit no significant difference in Nc compared with PLA/MMT-ODA foams. This reasoning is consistent with the large value of W in both systems. 

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