Nanocomposites reinforced with layered double hydroxides or layered hydroxide salts using poly(amide)6 and poly(L-lactide)

Abstract

Nowadays polymer nanocomposites reinforced with anionic exchangers having brucite-like structure (layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and layered hydroxide salts (LHSs)) have attracted considerable technological and scientific interest. These synthetic materials have some advantages when compared with cationic exchanger clays, widely used in polymer nanocomposites (ease to synthesize and control chemical composition, morphology and particle size; low cost and toxicity, etc.).Searching for the development of new polymeric materials with enhanced properties, this work investigates the in situ synthesis of polyamide 6 (PA6) reinforced with layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and the in situ synthesis of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) reinforced with layered hydroxide salts (LHSs) using different interlayers, being one of them a plasticizer.Despite the widespread use of PA6 and its importance in industry and research, this material is naturally hygroscopic. It is expected that nanocomposites of PA6 with HDL developed in this work may have lower water absorption, due to HDL hydrophobic lamellae distributed in nanoscale in the polymer matrix.The production of PLLA nanocomposite with HSL aims to improve the performance of poly (L-lactide) in some mechanical and thermal properties and at the same time to increase their flexibility and ductility due to the presence of fillers containing plasticizer anions as counter-ions. (AU)