PREPARING POLYESTER– BENTONITE CLAY NANO COMPOSITE AND STUDY SOME OF ITS MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

In the present work, composite polyester matrix- bentonite nano-particle clay was prepared. Bentonite was added with amounts (5, 10, 15, and 20%). XRD and chemical analysis areperformed for the bentonite before and after activation( by using hydrochloric acid and sodiumcarbonate).The shore D hardness and wear resistance are studied as well .XRD shows that thebentonite dominant phase is montmorillonite (M) and the activation reduces CaO content andenhances that for Na2O. The hardness of polyster composite increased to 95 shore D, at5wt%,wear rate of bentonite composite decreased with adding bentonite powder up to 5wt% , at highestweight fraction the composite material will have lower hardness values and high wear rate because of nano powder agglomeration after activation at highest percentage . Mass reduction of composite was occurred during the first 15 minutes of the process and after that there is no appreciable reduction.