Co‐poly(vinyl chloride‐vinyl acetate‐vinyl alcohol)‐silica nanocomposites from sol–gel process: Morphological, mechanical, and thermal investigations

Abstract

Organic-inorganic nanocomposites consisting of co-poly(vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol) and silica were prepared via sol-gel process. Two types of hybrids were prepared, one in which interactions between hydroxyl group present in the copolymer chain and silanol groups of silica network were developed. In the second set, extensive chemical bonding between the phases was achieved through the reaction of hydroxyl groups on the copolymer chains with 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane (ICTS). Hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethoxysilane and pendant ethoxy groups on the chain yielded inorganic network structure. Mechanical and thermal behaviors of the hybrid films were studied. Increase in Young's modulus, tensile strength, and toughness was observed up to 2.5 wt % silica content relative to the neat copolymer. The system in which ICTS was employed as binding agent, the tensile strength and toughness of hybrid films increased significantly as compared to the pure copolymer. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that these nanocomposite materials were stable up to 250 C. The glass transition temperature increases up to 2.5 wt % addition of silica in both the systems. Field emission scanning electron microscope results revealed uniform distribution of silica in the copolymer matrix.

Preparation and Properties of Nanocomposites Derived from Aromatic Polyamide and Surface Functionalized Nanoclay

“…The surface modification of montmorillonite is a prerequisite for creating the desired morphology of nanocomposites and consequently enhancement in properties of polymer nanocomposites. Several organic matrices have been reinforced with nano-fillers (clays) including polystyrene (Gilman et al, 2000;Okamoto et al, 2000), polyvinylchloride (Sarfaraz et al, 2012) and its copolymer (Nadeem et al, 2012), polypropylene (Kawasumi et al, 1997;Kurokawa et al, 1996), polyester (Lepoittevin et al, 2002), polycarbonate (Huang et al, 2000), poly(etherimide) (Huang et al, 2001), epoxies (Messersmith and Giannelis, 1994;Lan and Pinnavaia, 1994b), polysulfone (Sur et al, 2001), polyurethane (Yao et al, 2002), polyamides (Zulfiqar et al 2008a(Zulfiqar et al ,b,c, 2009aZulfiqar and Sarwar, 2009b,d) and polyimides (Yano et al, 1991(Yano et al, , 1997.…”

Evaluation of some intercalation methods of dimethylsulphoxide onto HCl-treated and untreated Egyptian kaolinite

“…Nanocomposites of co-poly (vinyl chloride-polyvinyl acetate-polyvinyl alcohol) (PVC-PVAc-PVA) and kaolinite were prepared via dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) -kaolinite complex (DMSO-KC) precursor (Nadeem et al, 2012;Zulfiqar et al, 2015).…”

The influence of 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane on thermostability, tensile behavior and water resistance of polyvinyl acetate/clay nanocomposite

“…However they did not study other properties such as mechanical properties and water resistence. L. Liu et al [2] prepared PVAc- Moreover, special attention has been given to the silane coupling agents which have the ability to form a durable bond between organic and inorganic material [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Silane coupling agents are widely employed in research and development for surface modification of inorganic materials and find their largest applica tion in the area of polymers since they provided a com bination of good mechanical properties, high resil ience, excellent adhesion and water resistance [27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…They found silane groups strongly bind through the Si-O-Si bond to the glass surface and the silane groups on the glass fiber surface generate a structured topography by forming islands on the surface. U. Nadeem et al [23] synthesized PVC-PVAc-PVA copolymer and silica nanocomposites with greater toughness relative to the pure copolymer through sol gel process however the thermal stability of the materials wasn't improved obviously. Generally speaking, the studies on modifi cation of PVAc with silane coupling agents are slim.…”