Elastomeric Clay Nanocomposites Prepared by Colloidal Route: Study of Interrelationship of Structure and Physical-Chemistry Properties
Nanocomposites of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) were synthesized by the colloidal route in the presence of Laponite clay. Nanocomposites were homogeneous at the nanometer scale and showed increased damping property, storage and loss moduli compared to pure polymers, related to the increase of polymeric motion observed at dynamic mechanical analysis, as well as the resistance to intermolecular slippage. Additionally, the dispersion of Laponite layers reduced the distance and the size of the correlation polymeric domains observed by SAXS, as well as improved the thermal resistance due to the barrier effect promoted by the presence of clay, demonstrated by the reduction of gas evolution during the thermal degradation process. These novel nanocomposites had their performance improved by the presence of Laponite clays and their physicochemical aspects could be investigated and understood.
Keywords: Nanocomposites; Colloidal Route; Clays; Elastomers; Damping Properties; Latex
The performance of polymeric materials is limited by their intrinsic characteristics, such as thermal decomposition, processing properties and chemical reactivity. To overcome these limitations, a new class of hybrid materials has been developed by the controlled insertion of nanoparticles into a polymer matrix, widely referred as polymer nanocomposites (PNC). The most popular and extensively studied PNC is formed by dispersing modified clays in a polyamide matrix, usually aiming to improve its thermal and mechanical properties and in some cases doubling its tensile modulus and strength without affecting its impact strength [1-3].
Recent studies about the use of modified clays to obtain PNC have demonstrated distinct performance in various properties, such as mechanical strength and chemical resistance [2-4], gas barrier [5-7], and low flammability [8]. In addition, plenty of different nanoparticles can be used in the synthesis of nanocomposites, including applications not limited to mechanical performance. Nanoparticles can be inserted into a polymeric matrix in several ways; however, one particular route involves intermediate colloidal dispersions of polymeric macromolecules and nanoparticles [9-12]. The main advantage of this route is the homogeneity achieved at the molecular level, which allows nanocomposites to be processed in several ways, from bulk material to films deposited on different substrates. Employing latex compounds in the colloidal route is a useful method to prepare and stabilize layered silicate/rubber materials, as the reported nanocomposites made of clay/ natural rubber [13], rectorite/SBR [9,14], organoclay/NBR [15], oxide nanoparticles/SBR [16] and clay/CNBR [17]. Most rubbers have their own latex forms in water, and pristine layered silicate is hydrophilic and can be have their layers easily dissociate in aqueous medium. Additionally, the process of nanocomposites synthesis does not involve complicated chemical reactions, toxic solvents, is inexpensive and environmentally friendly for both industrial production and scientific research [17,18].
Polymeric nanocomposites are materials that have led to high scientific and technological interest due to distinct mechanical and thermal properties compared to pure polymers or traditional composites. Then, there are numerous papers reporting the formation of nanocomposites using different elastomers by specific preparation methods, and in all of them, the improvements in mechanical, thermal and barrier properties were observed [18-26]. Besides, it is necessary to understand the physicochemical aspects of the polymeric matrix in the presence of nanoparticles, and to correlate them to the influence of the shape and size of the nanoparticles in the final properties of the nanocomposites. In this work PNC were prepared by inserting synthetic layered clays by the colloidal route into commercial polymers in latex form, specifically styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). Their mechanical, thermal and structural properties were evaluated to investigate the influence of functional groups from commercial elastomers in the interaction and dispersion of Laponite, which rules the final PNC properties.
Solutions and dispersions were prepared with deionized water (Millipore Elix 3 water purification system) all the chemical reagents of analytical grade were used as received with no further purification (Table 1).
Nanocomposites were prepared by the colloidal route by simple mixing commercial NBR and SBR latices with colloidal dispersions of Laponite nanoparticles. Laponite is the commercial name of synthetic hectorite clay produced and sold by Southern Clay Products. Laponite clay was dispersed in deionized water (1% w/w) under vigorous stirring to form exfoliated clay colloids. NBR and SBR are synthetic elastomers produced as latex in aqueous media and are composed by spherical particles with a diameter of approximately 100 nm. Nanocomposites were obtained by mixing 1, 2.5 and 5% (w/w) of Laponite aqueous dispersions in SBR and NBR polymeric latices, mechanically homogenized for 1 h and dried in Petri dishes in oven with air circulation at 50 ºC for 24 h to form the PNC films.
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded at Rigaku D/Max 2500PC diffractometer operating with Cu Kα radiation in the 2θ range of 3–30°, step scan mode of 0.02° and step time of 1s. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns were recorded in a Bruker AXS 2D Nanostar system (USA) with Cu Kα radiation, with a sample-detector distance of 106, 4 cm and a minimum resolution of q = 0.01 Å-1. Measurements were taken at a voltage of 40 kV and exposure times of 600s. The nanocomposites were analyzed in a Bruker Equinox 55 FTIR spectrometer, using an ATR accessory (single crystal ZnSe) in the range of 650-4000 cm-1 with 32 scans and a resolution of 4 cm-1.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was performed at Netzsch DSC 204 F1 Phoenix calorimeter from -100 ºC to 200 ºC, applying a heating rate of 20 ºC min-1. Thermal degradation was analyzed from 30 ºC to 800 ºC in a Netzsch TG 209 F1 thermogravimetric analyzer, applying a heating rate of 10 ºC min-1 and an oxygen flow rate of 30 mL min-1. The gases emitted during thermal degradation were analyzed in a Bruker Vertex 70 FTIR spectrometer in the region of 650-4000 cm-1 with 32 scans and a resolution of 4 cm-1. The spectrometer was equipped with a gas cell kept at a temperature of 200 ºC to prevent condensation of the degradation products in the transfer line between the TGA and the FTIR. Rectangular samples of nanocomposites (30.0 x 5.0 x 0.5 mm) were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), using a TA Instruments DMA 2980 analyzer. The DMA curves were recorded in tensile testing mode at a frequency of 1 Hz, in the range of -100 ºC to 30 ºC at a heating rate of 2 ºC min-1. The strain amplitude of 20 μm was chosen to ensure that all measurements would be performed in the linear viscoelastic region (LVR).
Laponite is synthetic hectorite clay and is layered, water-soluble clay with an average particle diameter of 25 nm, which readily forms a transparent gel when dissolved in water. On the other hands, NBR and SBR are synthetic elastomers produced as colloidal aqueous dispersions (latex) of spherical particles. Mechanically mixing dissolved Laponite gel with the polymer latex forms a complex and stable colloidal system. The colloidal dispersion is stable due to their mutual repulsion double diffused layers presented in both systems, where the particles are negatively charged. Valadares, et al. [10] reported a similar system composed of montmorillonite and natural rubber (NR). They used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to analyze the flexibility of exfoliated layers adsorbed on the surface of NR particles, which resulted in a uniform PNC after the solvent was removed. The same approach was used here to obtain SBR-Laponite and NBR-Laponite PNC.
Nanocomposites containing different amount of Laponite (1.0, 2.5 and 5.0% w/w) were evaluated by XRD to determine the degree of clay delamination. Figure 1 shows XRD patterns of pure elastomers and dry clay for comparison. The XRD pattern of pure Laponite shows a peak centered at 2θ = 6.8o (d = 1.3 nm) corresponding to its basal spacing. Regardless of the polymer used, this peak is absent from all the PNC patterns, indicating a reasonable degree of exfoliation at low Laponite contents. On the other hand, the presence of diffraction peaks in the XRD patterns of PNC containing higher clay contents, particularly the small and well defined peak at 2θ = 5.8o (d =1.5 nm) in the diffractogram of SBR containing 5% of Laponite (Figure 1a), was attributed to the presence of intercalated polymer chains. NBR with 1% Laponite nanocomposites showed that Laponite particles exfoliate, indicated by the absence of characteristic diffraction peaks (between 3° and 10°). In the nanocomposites with 2.5% of Laponite, a diffraction peak at 2θ = 4.66° corresponding to a basal spacing d = 1.88 nm indicated the presence of clay tactoids intercalated by the polymer matrix. In the nanocomposites with 5%, part of a diffraction peak is observed around 2θ =3°, indicating possible clay tactoids intercalated by the polymer. NBR with 1% Laponite showed that Laponite particles exfoliate, shown by the absence of characteristic diffraction peaks (between 3° and 10°). In the nanocomposites with 2.5% of Laponite, a diffraction peak at 2θ = 4.66° corresponding to a basal spacing d = 1.88 nm, showing presence of clay tacoids intercalated by the polymer matrix. In the nanocomposites with 5%, there is the appearance of the beginning of the diffraction peak at 2° of 3° (spacing d = 2.91 nm), indicating that there are clay tacoids intercalated by the polymer, with increasing the interlayer distance.
It is important to highlight that Laponite is completely exfoliated in the colloidal stage. Therefore, the presence of organized clay in PNC with higher Laponite content is likely attributed to the phenomenon of reverse exfoliation [27], which exfoliated clay returns to layered aggregates with intercalated polymer. Although exfoliated layers were homogeneously dispersed in the nanocomposites, only the nanocomposites containing smaller amounts of Laponite did not show the presence of diffraction peaks. This indicates there is a concentration limit to obtain completely exfoliated clays [28], especially when dealing with colloidal state or condensed state of PNC. It is important to mention a much more active role of the CEC during the recent election campaign. Thanks to the CEC decision lists of PARNAS, “Communist of Russia” and “ROT Front” in St. Petersburg were registered.
It is well known that most of PNC properties strongly dependent on the nanoparticles organizationinside the polymer matrix. To better understand how the presence of nanoparticles affects or modifies the nanocomposites properties, the PNC were analyzed by SAXS. Profiles of pure NBR and its PNC with different amount of Laponite (Figure 2a) show an interference peak at q = 0.014 Å-1 corresponding to the reordering of polymer chains during the evaporation of solvent [29]. This peak is also presented in the SAXS profiles of pure SBR and their nanocomposites (Figure 2b). The second peak of lower intensity at q = 0.198 Å-1 can be attributed to
The average distance among the domains was estimated using Bragg’s equation for SAXS (Eq. 1) and the average size of the correlation volume associated with their spatial distribution was obtained through Scherrer’s equation for SAXS (Eq. 2), where Δq is the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the correlation peak [30,34].
Table 2 shows that higher Laponite concentrations in NBR and SBR matrices led to smaller distances of the correlation domains (d) and correlation sizes (Lc). The only exception occurred at q = 0.198 Å-1, which is associated with the aromatic rings of SBR not affected by the presence of Laponite. On the other hand, the (Lc) values related to q = 0.198 Å-1 and to d = 0.014 Å decreased in the PNCs with higher clay content. This can be related to better layers dispersion at low concentration, favoring regions where the polymeric nanodomains are spatially correlated [34].
Another interesting result is the absence of peaks corresponding to Laponite layers in most of the SAXS profiles. According to the XRD curves in Figure 1, these peaks should appear at 2θ = 6.8o (d = 1.3 nm), or at approximately q = 0.33 Å-1 in the SAXS profiles. Their absence therefore corroborates the fact that exfoliated layers are well dispersed in the polymer matrix [31]. Higher intensity of scattering peaks of PNC than the respective pure polymers are attributed to the presence of dispersed Laponite layers.
The Guinier equation (Eq. 3) shows ordered nanodomains in the SBR and NBR nanocomposites without a spatial correlation [21,32,34]. In this equation 3, Rg is the gyration radius. In equation 4, N is the number of particles per unit volume, ν0 is the particle volume, and ρ0 and ρm are the average electron densities of the particles and polymer, respectively. The size f ordered nanodomains was confirmed by the existence of a curvature in a very low q region of the Guinier plot (Figure 3), which should be linear for a system of monodisperse heterogeneities without spatial correlation. Despite the size of ordered nanodomains, the Guinier formalism could be applied to estimate, in a first approximation, the average size range (Table 3) of the largest and smallest nanodomains in the PNC. In fact, the particle size distribution can be estimated in a polydisperse system, since large particles dominate the scattering at low q and small ones at high q [23,34].
Lazzara et al. [23] examined several polymer nanocomposites with Laponite by SAXS and small angle neutron spectroscopy (SANS). They observed the presence of large scale structural domains or a fractal type network. However, instead of a plateau of the scattering intensity (I(q)) at low scattering vector (q), they found a higher value of I(q). Moreover, they noted a larger gyration radius, indicating stretching of the copolymer blocks induced by the presence of Laponite, expanding the spacing of the lamellar structure much more than a simple intercalation. Paranhos et al. [34] reported similar behavior exhibited by polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) chains intercalated between montmorillonite layers.
In Table 3, the Guinier gyration radius of PNC decreased with higher Laponite content, indicating a slight polydispersity of clay layers dispersion. The correlation domains (d) showed a similar decrease, implying the presence of nano-organized structures (Table 2). In addition, the Rg.large values obtained at low q for all the nanocomposites were similar to the diameter of Laponite used, indicating that only a few organic molecules are attached to the surface of the clay layers [20].
The FTIR spectra in Figure 4(a) show the characteristic bands of the SBR matrix, such as the out-of-plane deformation of the 1,4-trans (964 cm-1) and 1,2-vinyl (910 cm-1) butadiene groups. Out-of-plane bending of C-H is observed at 758 cm-1 and the C=C band of the aromatic styrene (700 cm-1) overlaps the out-of-plane bending of 1,4-cis-butadiene (698 cm-1) [33]. According to the interaction between the Laponite layers and the double bonds of SBR, the relative intensity of the 1,4-cis-butadiene band at 669 cm-1 is higher for PNC with increased Laponite contents, which can be verified by the ratio between the peaks at 698 and 669 cm-1. Figure 4b shows the spectra of materials synthesized with NBR and the characteristic bands of 1,4 trans-butadiene (960 cm-1) and 1,2-butadiene (910 cm-1). The samples containing Laponite exhibit a shoulder at approximately 1000 cm-1, indicating the existence of a strong interaction between the exfoliated layers and the trans 1,4-butadiene group of NBR.
The process of thermal degradation observed in both PNCs with 5% of Laponite was the same of pure polymers; however, each system showed individual details. Specifically, pure NBR is relatively stable up to 360 ºC. Above this temperature, the polymer undergoes conspicuous thermal decomposition (Figure 5a). The maximum degradation temperature calculated from the first derivative of the thermogravimetric curve increased from 422 ºC in pure NBR to 427 ºC in the nanocomposite. This slight difference is clearly illustrated by the superposition of the peaks in the inset of Figure 5. In the case of SBR nanocomposites, the influence of Laponite on thermal stability was much more pronounced, probable due to stronger interaction between SBR polymer chains and exfoliated Laponite. For instance, the thermal degradation temperature increased from 501 ºC in pure SBR to 514 ºC in its PNC (Figure 5b). Moreover, the nanocomposite started to degrade at 471 ºC, which is 21 ºC higher than the degradation temperature of pure SBR (450 ºC). Incorporating exfoliated clays into a polymer matrix usually increases its thermal stability, since layers provide a good barrier effect, reducing the diffusion of molecular oxygen and slowing the evaporation of low molecular weight compounds [34]. The presence of polymer chains trapped in the galleries of the clay after the occurrence of reverse exfoliation can also augment the relative thermal stability of nanocomposites [35].
The main peaks in the time-resolved FTIR spectra of the gases released during the thermal degradation of pure NBR and its nanocomposite (Figure 6a) are related to the symmetrical (2860 cm-1) and asymmetrical (2930 cm-1) deformation of CH2, the symmetrical (1375 cm-1) and asymmetrical (1450 cm-1) CH3 bending vibration, and to the C-H deformation at 1460 cm-1. The peak at approximately 1650 cm-1 corresponds to cis or trans C=C stretching. The peak in the vicinity of 1416 cm-1 is due to the scissoring vibration of the methylene of vinyl group. The intense peaks at 2365 cm-1 and 2339 cm-1 are characteristic of the asymmetrical stretching of the CO2 molecule. Furthermore, the bands in the range of 3500 cm-1 to 4000 cm-1, which are present only in the spectra of pure NBR can be assigned to the release of water. Typical acetonitrile vibration (2260-2240 cm-1) could not be identified, since it absorbs in the same region of CO2. It is important to note that IR bands are less intense in the spectra of the gases released by the thermal degradation of PNC than the pure polymers, indicating a reduction in the diffusion rate of degraded products due to the gradual effect of the clay layers, which prevented further degradation of the nanocomposites. In a TGA-FTIR analysis, Chen et al. [36] found that 1,3-butadiene and acetonitrile are the thermal degradation products of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber and the double bond migration followed by allylic cleavage formed propene and acetonitrile molecules. Therefore, the main degradation products are unsaturated olefins or acetonitrile-terminated molecules.
Figures 6c and 6d show the time-resolved FTIR spectra of the gases released during the degradation of SBR and its nanocomposite. Main IR bandscorrespond to the out of plane bending vibrations of aromatic C-H (750 cm−1) and C=C (700 cm−1) of the styrene, the out of plane bending vibrations of C-H from vinyl groups (990 and 910 cm−1), and 1,4-trans-butadiene at 960 cm−1 [23]. Moreover, the thermal degradation between 400 and 500ºC resulted in oligomers with variable chains length resulted fromrandom polymeric chain scissions. Berridi et al. [37] observed the evolution of isoprene, dipentene and different unsaturated volatile products at higher temperatures during the thermal degradation of SBR and natural rubber. Additionally, the thermal degradation of styrene chain releases gaseous compounds with aromatic rings, such as styrene, α-methylstyrene and benzene [38]. It is worth noting that the SBR nanocomposites exhibited less gas evolution, evidenced by the lower intensity of the absorption bands, which indicates an increase in thermal stability due to the presence of clay. Furthermore, the reaction mechanism did not change during the thermal degradation.
Many properties of PNC, including the glass transition temperature (Tg), can be modified by using coupling agents on the surface of nanoparticles [39], which can interact attractively with the polymer to increase the Tg. On the other hand, a repulsive interaction decreases the Tg behavior related to the enthalpy of components interface due to an increase in molecular contacts on the surface of nanoparticles [40]. To understand the effect of Laponite on the properties of PNC, nanocomposites containing 1% and 5% of clay were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and compared to pure NBR and SBR (Figure 7). The most important finding was that the presence of Laponite has opposite effects on the glass transition temperature of NBR and SBR nanocomposites. While the SBR-based materials have their Tg shifted to higher temperatures, the Tg of NBR materials slightly decreased (Table 4). This apparent divergent result expresses the differences of each macromolecule. While SBR exhibits a strong interaction with the nanoparticles, which could be evaluated by the shift of Tg to higher temperatures, the weaker interaction between nanoparticles and NBR augmented the flexibility and mobility of the polymer chains, shifting the Tg to lower temperatures [41]. Moreover, there is an increase in heat capacity variation (ΔCp) associated with the variation of Tg related to more rigid amorphous domains in the nanocomposites, which restrict the mobility of polymer chains close to the nanoparticles.
Dynamic mechanical thermal measurements are usually expressed according to the elastic response to deformation represented by the storage modulus (E'), the plastic response to deformation represented by the loss modulus (E''), and the loss tangent (tan δ), which can be obtained by the ratio of E''/E' and represents the damping behavior responsible for transitions related to molecular mobility. The addition of Laponite to PNC increased the storage modulus (Figure 8), which can be explained in terms of the classical theory of mechanical reinforcement. The significant enhancement of E' for all PNC indicates the strong effect of the dispersed layers on the elastic properties of pure SBR and NBR. The increase of E' in the vicinity of the Tg due to restricted movement of polymer chains is also supported by the reinforcing effect and is affected by the shape factor and filler volume fraction of clay layers [42,43]. The significant reduction in storage modulus (E') around -45 ºC for SBR and -15 ºC for NBR is due to the transition from glassy state to rubbery state in the Tg region. The E'' curves shifted to lower temperatures in response to the addition of Laponite, which means that Tg has shifted to lower temperatures because of the easier molecular motion resulting from the nanoscopic distribution of exfoliated layers. Additionally, the intensity of the tan δ decreases and the curve broadens with Laponite content in the vicinity of Tg. The larger changes in the storage modulus (E') than in the loss modulus (E'') in the Tg region of the nanocomposites are the main responsible for the low tan δ values for NBR nanocomposites.
As can be seen in the curves, the loss modulus (E'') increases with Laponite content in both SBR and NBR nanocomposites, and the peak of the E'' curve shifts to lower temperatures. These results evidence that the Tg decreased in both materials and that the PNC became more flexible in terms of molecular motion, which is directly related to higher energy dissipation due to the presence of exfoliated clay in all the PNCs. This difference in the behavior of nanocomposites and pure elastomers is confirmed by the tan δ curves. A significant increase in the elastic modulus in response to the insertion of Laponite was also noted, resulting in the appearance of a shoulder in the curves of the loss modulus of SBR and NBR nanocomposites. This may indicate the emergence of a rigid amorphous area near the clay layers due to the interaction between the Laponite and polymer. Thus, there is the formation of a secondary stage of greater organization, or nanostructured polymer matrix, which is consistent with the increase in ΔCp observed in the DSC characterization [44].
The comparison between DSC and DMA measurements reveals that they both showed a decrease in Tg after the addition of clay in the NBR matrix. This is an indication of the augmented mobility of polymer chains due to the presence of Laponite layers. However, the DSC curves of the SBR nanocomposites showed a slight shift of Tg to higher temperatures. On the other hand, the DMA measurements better represent sensitive polymer molecular motion. There was indeed a decrease in the Tg of SBR nanocomposites with higher Laponite content, which is observed in the curves of both E'' and tan δ. This indicates that both elastomers became slightly more flexible in the presence of clay, but they also showed a superior gain in storage and loss modulus and resistance to intermolecular slippage.
The ability of polymers to absorb and dissipate mechanical energy in the form of heat is called damping. Due to their viscoelastic nature, polymers present damping properties, especially in the temperature range of the relaxation transition from the glassy to the highly elastic state. Therefore, near the glass transition temperature, polymers have maximum values of tan δ and mechanical loss modulus [45]. It is known that the viscoelastic properties of polymers depend on their chemical and intermolecular structure. Based on that, Sperling et al. [46] proposed the mechanical energy dissipated by a particular polymer during the DMA experiment is dependent on the groups present in the polymer chain. According to this theory, the area under the E'' vs. T curve in the region of glass transition temperature (also called loss area, or simply LA) is related to a quantitative analysis from the dissipation of mechanical energy. The LA is determined by the total contribution of different types of structural units for the relaxation process, and depends on the molecular structure of the polymer [36-47]. In this way, the total LA can be calculated by Eq. 5, where E'g and E'r are the storage moduli before and after the Tg, respectively, T1 and Tr are the temperatures above and below Tg, (Ea)AV is the activation energy of the relaxation process, and R is the universal gas constant.
The total LA can be also calculated by Eq. 6, where Mi is the molecular weight of an i group in the repeating unit, M is the molecular weight of the polymer, (LA)i is the loss area corresponding to the contribution of this group, and ci is the molar constant of the loss area.
Equation 6 considers only the composition, although interactions occur between different chemical groups. According to this theory, the loss modulus vs. temperature curve is a function of the polymeric structure and the area under this curve is related to the concentration of the species involved. In addition, the damping properties of a system are determined by its morphology and chemical composition, and are expressed by the area under the tan δ curve as a function of temperature (Table 5) [36,48].
The areas under E'' and tan δ vs. temperature curve for SBR and NBR nanocomposites increased with higher Laponite concentration. This is due to the increased concentration of groups able to dissipate mechanical energy in the form of heat both nanocomposites with 5% of Laponite showed the best relationship between dissipated and stored energies, i.e., maximum damping. Furthermore, it can be observed that the activation energy for the relaxation process in SBR materials decreased with higher Laponite content, indicating an interaction between the clay layers and polymer chains that reduces the energy of the relaxation process for NBR nanocomposites, there is a visible increase in the activation energy when Laponite is added, possibly due to hydrogen bonding between nitrile group and the Laponite surface. Hourston et al. [39] determined areas under the E'' and tan δ vs. temperature curves for interpenetrating polymeric networks consisting of thermoplastic polyurethanes and poly (ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA). The area under the E'' curve gradually increased with PEMA content, reflecting the concentration of groups with higher capacity to dissipate mechanical energy. On the other hand, Kim et al. [49-51] prepared several organoclay/NBR nanocomposites and observed a significant decrease in the peak area under the tan δ and loss modulus curves, which indicated that damping was reduced by the increase in clay content. They also observed a shift and broadening of the tan δ peaks to higher temperatures, resulting in higher Tg. The authors explained this behavior as a result of the restricted segmental motions at the organic–inorganic interface of the intercalated compositions. The damping properties of the PNC increased due to the higher mobility of polymer chains in the presence of clay, and it is also believed that the presence of these tactoids leads to a nanostructured polymer matrix. These arrangements of elastomeric chains around the layers probably form as the solvent gradually evaporates during synthesis, which is in agreement with the results of the SAXS and DSC measurements.
In summary, the colloidal route proved to be an efficient method to prepare SBR and NBR nanocomposites with synthetic Laponite. The final structure consisted of exfoliated nanocomposites with excellent thermomechanical properties. It is worth noting that the slow evaporation involved in this route enabled the nanostructuring of polymer chains. Furthermore, unlike the findings of other authors, there was a significant improvement in the property of dynamic mechanical damping, which is reflected by the increase in the area under the loss modulus curve.
Nanocomposites of SBR and NBR with Laponite were synthesized through a simple mixture of components by the colloidal route and were homogeneous at the nanometer scale, as shown in SAXS and XRD measurements. The clay layers were exfoliated and some intercalated in the polymer matrices. These resulted in the reduction of the distance and the size of correlation domains from the polymeric arrangements formed during the drying process of the films. The exfoliated layers in the final materials had a gas barrier effect, reducing the diffusion of oxygen and slowing the evaporation of low molecular weight compounds, especially carbon dioxide. The influence of Laponite on thermal stability was much more pronounced in the SBR nanocomposites, probably due to the interaction between SBR polymer chains and exfoliated clay. The maximum degradation temperature calculated from the first derivative of the thermogravimetric curves showed an increase of 5 ºC and 13 ºC for the nanocomposites of NBR and SBR, respectively, when compared with the pure elastomers. The presence of Laponite not only improved the thermal stability of SBR and NBR nanocomposites as shown in the TGA curves, but also resulted in better damping property and higher storage and loss moduli. This may indicate the emergence of a rigid amorphous area near the clay layers due to the interaction between the Laponite and polymer, as well as the increase in polymer motion observed by DMA and by the Tg values. The remarkable properties obtained by the nanocomposites in this paper can extend the potential application of the commercial elastomers latices are used, especially when thermal and mechanical resistance is desirable, such as, elastomeric coating designed for use on masonry and concrete construction; dust control agent and a soil stabilizer for unpaved road and asphalt paving additive.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Brazilian research funding agencies FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, Grant no. 2012/07067-0), CAPES (Federal Agency for the Support and Improvement of Higher Education), CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), and INCTMN (National Institute for Materials Science in Nanotechnology).
