The application of thermal analysis to the study of epoxy–clay nanocomposites

Abstract

Aquesta és una còpia de la versió author's final draft d'un article publicat a la revista Journal of thermal analysis and calorimetry. AbstractThe development of polymer layered silicate (PLS) nanocomposites goes back over 20 years now, and yet they still have not achieved their full potential. A principal reason for this is the difficulty of obtaining a truly exfoliated nanostructure. The fabrication procedure for such PLS nanocomposites based upon epoxy resin includes several stages, including dispersion of the clay in the resin, intercalation of the resin into the clay galleries, and finally curing of the nanocomposite system. Many attempts have been made to improve the degree of exfoliation in the final nanostructure by modifying the procedures involved in these fabrication stages, and the usual approach is to examine the nanostructure, by techniques such as Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), as a function of the fabrication procedure. We show here, however, that thermal analytical techniques, and in particular Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), can complement the techniques of SAXS and TEM in the search for ways in which to achieve improved degrees of exfoliation in PLS nanocomposites based upon epoxy resin.

Thermal analysis of some novel pyrimidine derivatives

“…It is widely used in various fields to study composition analysis, product reliability, stability, chemical reaction and dynamic properties [7][8][9]. The analysis is popular in various industries namely pharmaceutical [10,11], forensic [12,13], food [14,15], ceramics [16,17], polymer [18,19], composites [20,21] and semiconductors [22] industries. Further, by thermal analysis, kinetic parameters of thermally simulated reactions can be evaluated which provides a deeper insight in to the mechanism of high energetic compounds [23][24][25][26].…”