Rheology of Nylon 6-Clay Nanocomposites
Rahul Gupta, Sati N. Bhattacharya, George Simon
RMIT UNIVERSITY
AUSTRALIA
Keywords: Nylon 6, exfoliation, shear
Rheological properties of two Nylon 6 samples & their nanocomposites were studied to develop a fundamental understanding of the relationship between rheology and the structure of nanocomposites. Nylon 6 samples were obtained from Honeywell & RTP Company. The Nylon 6-clay nanocomposite from Honeywell (2%) was in-situ polymerized while RTP Company (5%) was obtained through melt intercalation. The microstructure of the Nylon 6-clay nanocomposites was examined by X-ray diffraction analysis. As expected Nylon 6 Honeywell and RTP were identical. The Nylon 6-clay nanocomposites were predominantly exfoliated, but there is a small peak corresponding to 0.8 nm, which might be the rest of the original clay.
The steady shear rheological behavior of molten Nylon 6 & Nylon 6-clay nanocomposites were studied at 235 °C. The measurements of the shear properties of the Nylon 6-nanocomposites were performed on the Advanced Rheological Expansion System (ARES). Both of the Nylon 6 materials behaved similarly & showed only shear thinning beyond shear rates of 10 s -1. Nylon 6-clay nanocomposites showed shear thinning characteristics with the viscosity at high shear rates being almost same to the unfilled polymer. Uniaxial viscosities of the Nylon 6 & Nylon 6-clay nanocomposites were also studied using Rheometrics Elongational Rheometer (RME) at 235 °C. The influence of the Nylon6-Clay nanocomposites on the extensional & shear rheology will be discussed.