Functional Polymers/Organo-Clay Hybrid Nanocomposites Through Acid/Amine Funtionalized Monomer and Polymer Nanofillers

The functional polymers/organo-clay hybrid nanocomposites were prepared by (a) intercalation of acid/amine functionalized monomers (vinyl sulfonic, maleic and itaconic acids, allyl amine) and their homo- and copolymers, (b) in-situ copolymerization of pre-intercalated functional monomer with acrylic comonomers (alkyl acrylates, acrylamide, etc.) and (c) melting reactive extrusion in situ processing using pre-intercalatedmonomer(polymer)/organo-silicate systems as compotibilizer-nanofillers and isotactic polypropylene as a non-polar matrix. The ‘structure–composition–properties’ relationships as a function of nanostructural formation in the prepared systems were investigated by the various methods (spectroscopy, XRD, DSC-TGA, DMA and SEM). It was demonstrated that the pre-intercalation factor and strong H-bonding interactions between the monomer/polymer and the organo-silicate layers are critical to the formation of polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites with the greatly improved dispersion states.