Organoclay degradation in melt processed polyethylene nanocomposites

Melt processed nanocomposites were formed from low-density polyethylene, LDPE, and organoclays over a wide range of processing temperatures. These composites show limited exfoliation, and hence, their X-ray analysis reveals a distinct peak corresponding to the interplatelet distances in the unexfoliated clay galleries. The degradation of the quaternary ammonium surfactant of the organoclay in these systems was characterized by examining the change in the position of these peaks as a function of the melt processing temperature. Upon degradation, the mass of the surfactant within the clay galleries decreases, which causes the platelets to collapse and shifts the WAXS peak to lower d-spacings. The results of the WAXS analysis suggest that a significant portion of the surfactant is lost from the organoclays when the melt processing temperature is increased from 180 to 200 °C or higher. The extent of surfactant degradation in these composites was determined to be independent of the organoclay content. Organoclay degradation appears to limit the extent of exfoliation or dispersion in LDPE as revealed by stress–strain analyses of nanocomposites processed at different temperatures. The amount of surfactant lost during thermogravimetric analysis of various organoclays indicates that surfactants with multiple alkyl tails have greater thermal stability than those with a single alkyl tail. A comparison of the mass of surfactant lost during melt processing of nanocomposites and during thermogravimetric analysis of organoclays (in the absence of polymer) indicated that at a given time, a larger surfactant loss from the clay galleries occurs during extrusion than during the TGA experiment. This is attributed to the greater ease with which the degradation products (predominantly α-olefins) are solubilized in polyethylene for the composites as opposed to evaporated from the organoclay during TGA.