Intercalation behavior of hydroxylated dendritic polyesters in polymer clay nanocomposites prepared from aqueous solution

Second and fourth generations of hydroxylated dendritic polyesters based on 2,2-bis-methylopropionic acid (bis-MPA) with an ethoxylated pentaerytriol (PP50) core were combined with unmodified sodium montmorillonite clay (Na+MMT) in water to generate a broad range of polymer clay nanocomposite films from 0 to 100% wt/wt. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate intercalation states of the clay galleries. Intercalation was the dominant state in these nanocomposites. Significant exfoliation was only observed within 0–5% wt/wt of mineral composition range. It was shown that interlayer spacing changed within the composition range 5–95% wt/wt from 0.5 nm to up to 3.5 nm in a step-like fashion with 0.5 nm increments which corresponded to a flattened conformation of confined hyperbranched polymers (HBP). Second and fourth generations exhibited the same layer-by-layer intercalation of completely flattened HBPs. No dependence of interlayer spacings on generation number was found. XRD and TEM revealed the presence of mixed intercalated populations with interlayer spacings at multiples of 0.5 nm.