Titanate and silane coupling agents based surface modifications of clay and their effects on the performance of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) nanocomposites

In this study, titanate and silane coupling agents modified montmorillonite clay was embedded in PTT, poly (trimethylene terephthalate) through a melt processing technique to study the effect of such chemical modification of clay on the mechanical, thermo-mechanical and barrier properties of PTT clay nanocomposites. PTT (trade name SoronaRTM) is an engineering polymer, which can be partially derived from biomass. Montmorillonite clay was organically modified with a titanate based coupling agent and a silane coupling agent and were characterized by different analytical techniques, which validated the successful modification of montmorillonite clay. In this study, petroleum-based SoronaRTM was used. The outcome of this study can be applied to biobased SoronaRTM. The tensile modulus, storage modulus and heat deflection temperature (HDT) of PTT were improved through organo-clay reinforcements. Extruded cast film of neat PTT had low percent elongation while PTT-clay nanocomposites showed quite ductile behavior with no break. The barrier properties of PTT film were also investigated in extruded cast film nanocomposites. The PTT/titanate modified clay nanocomposite film was characterized through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM).