Intercalation and in situ polymerization of poly(alkylene oxide) derivatives within M+-montmorillonite (M = Li, Na, K)

Abstract

We have synthesized a range of montmorillonite-based clay-polymer nanocomposites by intercalation of a variety of functionalized molecules having poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide) backbones from aqueous solution using a facile batch process. We focus on montmorillonite clays charge-balanced by cation exchange with Li + and K + , but otherwise unmodified. Analysis by X-ray diffraction and thermal methods showed that intercalation occurred in all cases and that the composites displayed a range of interlayer spacings and organic content, from monolayer arrangements to pseudo-trilayer arrangements. Intercalated K + -montmorillonites had a propensity to exfoliate, in marked contrast to their resistance to swelling by water. Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of selected composites were used to elucidate possible interlayer arrangements of the composites. Materials property studies showed that these clay-polymer composites had significantly increased Young's moduli compared to the unfilled polymer.

Combined experimental and theoretical investigation of interactions between kaolinite inner surface and intercalated dimethyl sulfoxide

“…In our simulation cases, the recently developed INTER-FACE force field [30,31] was adopted, which has already been proven quite successful in describing many inorganic-organic and inorganic-bimolecular interfaces, especially for clays, in quantitative agreement with available experimental data [30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. The force field parameters of our systems were summarized in detail in Ref.…”

RETRACTED: Influence of alkali metal cations on the thermal, mechanical and morphological properties of rectorite/chitosan bio-nanocomposite films

“…The effects of the identity of the interlayer cations in montmorillonite has been previously considered and a dependence of the interlayer d-spacing, hydration energy, etc. (Greenwell et al, 2006;Laird, 2006;Montes-H, Duplay, Martinez, Geraud, & RoussetTournier, 2003;Sato, Watanabe, & Otsuka, 1992;Skipper et al, 2006;Tamura, Yamada, & Nakazawa, 2000). According to Nam, Ebina, and Mizukami (2009) the Na/Ca-type montmorillonite clays are common as ion-exchangeable clays in dissimilar environments.…”

Relative modulus–relative density relationships in low density polymer–clay nanocomposite foams

“…Natural montmorillonite is a hydrophilic clay that presents approximately 6 wt% water molecules between the layers. 59 Intercalation of the polyol into clay galleries is mainly driven by the entropic change associated with the loss of these water molecules from the galleries.…”

“…61,62 It is known that the reaction between an isocyanate and water produces an amine and carbon dioxide (Scheme 1). By reacting the water present inside the clay galleries 59 with the MDI an amine is formed, minimizing the degree of intercalation of the polyol in the later stage, 2,63 but at the same time CO 2 is also produced presumably causing some clay layers to lose their ordered structures and perhaps to expand their layer spacing slightly further. Regardless of the clay content, a value of 1.61 nm is obtained.…”