Modeling of nanoclay exfoliation and lamellar ordering of polypropylene clay nanocomposites with small angle X-ray scattering studies

COLL 338

Sivalingam Gunasekaran, sivalingam.gunasekaran@ril.com1, Nisha Preschilla, nisha.preschilla@ril.com1, AS Abdul Rasheed, asarasheed@iitb.ac.in2, Amit Biswas, amit.biswas@ril.com1, Jayesh R Bellare, jb@iitb.ac.in2, Sandeep Tyagi, sandeep.tyagi@ril.com1, and Natarajan Venkateswaran, natarajan.venkateswaran@ril.com1. (1) Polymer Research and Technology Centre, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, 400071, India, (2) Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India
A novel model was developed to predict the Small angle X-ray scattering intensity profiles of various polypropylene clay nanocomposites to gain quantitative information on nanoclay exfoliation, lamellar ordering and local crystallinity. In the present work, the alternating high and electron density distributions are modeled as mixed distribution which is a convolution of Gaussian and Exponential distributions. These distributions were incorporated in a one-dimensional model for stacked structures based on Hosemann's approach. The model findings compare well with transmission electron micrographs and corroborates with the impact strength and flexural modulus of the composites as shown in the figure. Polymorphism induced in polypropylene, due to nanoclay incorporation were also explained with the model.

 

Polymer-Nanoparticle Systems: Theory, Simulation, Experiments
2:00 PM-5:00 PM, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 227, Oral

Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008