A Candid Approach to Clay Modification via Dehydroxylation for Nanocomposites Application: Investigation of Degradation Kinetics, Reaction Model, and Flammability

Abstract

ABSTRACT:A candid approach to thermal dehydroxylation was used for the modification of clay, to achieve improved thermal stability of a polymer nanocomposite. The modification of clay using alkyl ammonium salt has been found disadvantageous due to various aspects; hence the approach to dehydroxylation was an innovative step to overcome the difficulties in achieving a thermally stable polymer clay nanocomposite. Therefore, a detailed study of thermal stability of polymer clay nanocomposites has been carried out using isoconversional TGA methods of Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Kissinger. Also, the reaction model involved in the decomposition process of polypropylene (PP) and its nanocomposites have been investigated. From the thermal kinetic analysis, it was clear that the thermal dehydroxylation method can be used as an effective approach for clay modification and the use of organic alkyl ammonium salt can be avoided. Furthermore, to predict the flame-retardant effectiveness of the thermally dehydroxylated clay, the cone calorimeter analysis was carried out. A comparison of the flame-retardant effectiveness of the organophillic clay and thermally dehydroxylated clay was presented. C