Thermoelasticity and stress relaxation behavior of polychloroprene/organoclay nanocomposites

Polychloroprene/organoclay nanocomposites (ENC) were characterized by X-ray scattering, DSC and stretching calorimetry techniques. The infinite cluster of highly anisometric organoclay particles was likely to set on at filler volume fraction as low as ϕ ⩽ 0.04. Quantitative analysis of thermoelastic behavior over the entire range of relative elongations provided additional support for the concept of strain-dependent strain amplification factor as the major parameter controlling the thermomechanical properties of the ENC. Low values of the fitting parameter C in the modified equation for the total heats of stretching were regarded as evidence for the reduced exothermal effects of external friction between organoclay nanoparticles coated with the boundary interphase. Stress relaxation behavior of the ENC was qualitatively consistent with the original assumption that after initial stretching to the highest elongation (λlim) the pre-existing infinite clusters of filler particles were broken into isolated clusters which remained structurally similar, whatever the subsequent stretching to λf < λlim.