A brief survey on CLAYPEN and Nanocomposites based on unmodified PE and organo-pillared clays

New clay fillers are mixed with linear low-density polyethylene at 160 °C for 10 min to obtain clay-PE nanocomposites (CLAYPEN) by melt intercalation. Raw montmorillonite (Mt) was pillared (PMt) with partially hydrolyzed Al and Fe salt solutions and further reacted with hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (OPMt). For comparison, the hexadecyl trimethylammonium-montmorillonite (OMt) was prepared as a reference material. PE is not intercalated by organoclay. In investigating the pillared clay-PE nanocomposites, XRD is not an appropriate indicator of intercalation of PE, which penetrates into the mesoporous OPMt as shown by TEM. All the nanocomposites have higher Young modulus values than the pristine PE. The best compromise between the other mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation at break) is obtained with the OPMt-PE nanocomposite. Cone-calorimeter study shows that peak heat release rate value of PE decreases substantially (34%) on addition of 5 phr of this novel OPMt filler.