Morphology and properties of nanocomposites based on polymer blend and organoclay

Abstract

Forming a polymer blend is a convenient method for obtaining materials with improves property performance. However, most chemically different polymers are immiscible and their blending leads to a material with weak interfacial adhesion and thus poor mechanical performance. Numerous researchers have reported the use of a compatibilizer to modify the interfacial tension in polymer blend and their effect on the thermodynamic phase behaviour which governs the final morphology of the polymer blend with highly improved properties.1-4 such a compatibilizer may be a homopolymer, a block, graft or star copolymer. However, there are few reports on clay containing nanocomposites based on polymer blends, whether miscible or immiscible. Such composite materials offer unique opportunity to prepare new and novel high performance polymeric materials by the combination of advantages of both polymer blend and nanocomposite technologies. In this study the objective is to understand the exact mechanism on the change of phase morphology and properties of organoclay modified polypropylene/poly [(butylene succinate)] (PP/PBS) blends.