Open Access

ARTICLE

Structure and Properties of Polyamide 11 Nanocomposites Filled with Fibrous Palygorskite Clay

B. Benobeidallah¹, A. Benhamida¹, A. Dorigato^2,*, A. Sola³, M. Messori³, A. Pegoretti²

1 Laboratoire des Matériaux Polymères Avancés (LMPA), Université Abderrahmane Mira de Bejaia, Bejaia, Algeria.
2 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
3 Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari”, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.

*Corresponding Author: A. Dorigato. Email: .

Journal of Renewable Materials 2019, 7(1), 89-102. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2019.00136

Abstract

Various amounts (up to 10 wt%) of palygorskite nanofibers functionalized by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) coupling agent were used to reinforce polyamide 11 nanocomposites prepared by melt compounding. The covalent bonding of the silane on the palygorskite surface was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. X-ray diffraction revealed the retention of the α-form of polyamide crystals upon the addition of both natural and silane treated palygorskite nanorods. All the investigated nanocomposites showed an improvement of the thermal stability, especially when surface treated palygorskite nanofibers were considered. Tensile tests and dynamic mechanical thermal analyses on the prepared materials evidenced how the incorporation of palygorskite nanofibers significantly increased the elastic and the storage moduli of polyamide, and this enhancement was more evident when natural palygorskite nanorods were used.

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