Thermal Stability of Polystyrene-Clay Nanocomposite

Several attempts to prepare polystyrene-clay composite have been reported(1-5). A common technique involves impregnating clay in styrene monomer followed bypolymerization. The hydrophilic nature of untreated clay impeded its homogeneous dispersion in polymer matrix. Friedlander and Grink (5) repoted a slight expansion of the 001 spacing of clay galleries and concluded that polystyrene was intercalated in clay galleries; but Blumstein (6)questioned intercalation by polystyrene because no increase in the basal spacing could be detected. In this research, in order to overcome the differences in nature of polymer and nanoclay, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) which is a hydrophilic material was grafted on copolymer of styrene-maleic anhydridecopolymer (PVA-g-S/MA), in order to increase hydrophiles of polystyrene. Also ultrasound which is a powerful instrumentwas employed to disperse inorganic nano clay in to theterpolymer (PVA-g-S/MA).