Research Information System
CELLULOSE CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY, vol.42, no.9-10, pp.549-568, 2008 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites have attracted a high interest in today's materials research as, compared to pure polymers, impressive enhancements of the material properties are possible. Starch/poly(vinyl alcohol)/montmorillonite composites have been prepared by the melt mixing method, their morphology and thermal behaviour being analyzed by electron microscopy, ATR-FT-IR spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG). SEM Studies revealed a partially exfoliated morphology, while DSC and TG studies indicated changes in the thermal behaviour even at low concentrations of the inorganic fillers. As a result of some spectacular destruction effects, the suppression of To and Tm was observed for blends and nanocomposites containing Nanocore 128 montmorillonite, which led to a morphology with a low or very low content of the crystalline phase and a compatibility of the components, based on chain entanglements. At low loadings (<5 wt%). the inorganic fillers are well dispersed through the PVA/starch matrix, i.e. the nanocomposites formed are mostly exfoliated hybrids. TG measurements show a slight increase in thermal stability, mainly for starch.