In situ interlamellar production of amide-based functional copolymer/clay nanocomposites

Abstract

Functional amide-based copolymer/clay nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ radical-initiated interlamellar copolymerization from acrylamide and citraconic anhydride monomers in the presence of organically modified montmorillonite (O-MMT) clay. The structure–property relationships and the effect of O-MMT clay on the properties of the nanocomposites were evaluated using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The obtained results confirmed the in situ interlamellar production of the nanocomposites by intercalation of comonomers into O-MMT layers from increased basal spacing in the nanocomposites. The chemical structures of the synthesized nanocomposites were also confirmed from the comprehensive analysis of the characteristic bands and peaks of the segments. The effect of three different amounts of O-MMT clay (2, 4, and 6 wt%) loading on the thermal and dynamic mechanical properties was also investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). All the nanocomposites exhibited improved thermal stability compared to the neat copolymer. These results showed that the nanocomposites containing higher clay content had higher resistance to thermal degradation. The results obtained from this study suggest that these nanocomposites with amide and anhydride functional groups prepared by in situ interlamellar copolymerization may be promising as new high-performance nanomaterials.