Intercalated Polycarbonate/Clay Nanocomposites -Nanostructure Controll and Foam Processing -
Yasuhito Ito, Masami Okamoto, Masaki MITSUNAGA, Katsuhiko HIRONAKA
Toyota Technological Institute
JAPAN

Keywords: Nanocomposites, Foam processing, Properties

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Intercalated polycarbonate(PC)/clay nanocomposites have been prepared successfully through melt intercalation method in presence of compatibilizer. The internal structure and morphology of the nanocomposites has been established by using wide-angle X-ray(WAXD) and transmission electron microscopy(TEM) respectively. The morphology of these nanocomposites and degradation of the PC-matrix after nanocomposites preparation can be controlled by varying surfactants used for the modification of clay and compatibilizers. The intercalated PC/clay nanocomposites exhibited remarkable improvements of mechanical properties when compared with PC without clay.
In addition, we also discuss foam processing of intercalated polycarbonate(PC)/clay nanocomposites by using supercritical CO2 at 10MPa in a batch process