Enhanced exfoliation of montmorillonite prepared by hydrothermal method

Organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) nanoparticles were obtained by hydrothermal reaction and exfoliated nylon-6/montmorillonite nanocomposites were prepared by melt-compounding. The morphology of the OMMT nanoparticles was observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The exfoliated OMMT nanoparticles consisted of several parallel MMT layers and presented disordered and villiform morphology. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) indicates that OMMT nanoparticles were dispersed uniformly in the nylon-6 matrix. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that the OMMT nanoparticles in nanocomposites were dispersed in nanoscale and arranged along the injection direction. Mechanical tests show that, upon incorporation of only 2 wt.% OMMT, the impact strength of nylon-6 was greatly improved whereas other properties were only slightly improved.