Microstructural evolution of electrically activated polypropylene/layered silicate nanocomposites investigated by in situ synchrotron wide-angle X-ray scattering and dielectric relaxation analysis

Electric field was found to facilitate the destruction of layer stacking and separation of silicate layers in polypropylene (PP)/layered silicate nanocomposites, resulting in the penetration of polymer chains into silicate galleries. In this study, we describe the real-time microstructural evolution of PP/clay nanocomposites under electric field investigated by in situ synchrotron wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) analysis. We were able to identify two distinctive mechanisms for the formation of nanocomposites depending on the type of electric field. We observed that the exfoliation process prevails in the AC field, while the alignment of silicates parallel to the electric field predominates in the DC field. Dielectric relaxation analysis showed that the different mechanisms originate from different charge distributions of bound ions attached to the clay surfaces due to the applied electric field.