Thermal, oxygen barrier and mechanical properties of polylactide–organoclay nanocomposites

Polylactide (PLA) nanocomposites reinforced with commercially available organoclays, Nanomer I.28E and Nanomer I.34TCN, were prepared using a melt intercalation technique. In this work, two different clay concentrations (2 and 4 wt.%) were considered. The morphology of the resulting nanocomposites was observed by TEM micrographs while the interaction between polymer and clay was measured by FTIR analysis and contact angle measurements. Better dispersion quality and interaction with the polymer matrix was observed for I.34TCN organoclay. The effect of clay dispersion and its interaction with PLA was investigated by measuring the thermal, oxygen barrier and mechanical properties of the prepared nanocomposites; consequently, higher improvements were observed in the properties of nanocomposites containing I.34TCN compared to the I.28E counterpart. Besides, 2 wt.% clay content was found as an optimum concentration for enhancing the different properties of the resulting nanocomposites with respect to neat PLA. However, higher improvements in oxygen permeability and tensile modulus were achieved by embedding 4 wt.% organoclay into the PLA matrix.