Unsaturated polyester/montmorillonite nanocomposites with improved mechanical and thermal properties fabricated by in situ polymerization

ABSTRACT Although organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) has been incorporated into unsaturated polyester (UP) resin to enhance properties, the aggregation often leads to defects which directly affect the properties of nanocomposites. In this work, OMMT slurry modified by a new allyl surfactant with carbon–carbon double bond, hexadecyl allyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (C16‐DMAAC), was employed to prepare nanocomposites by in situ polymerization. The results illustrated that the existence of OMMT slurry helped monomers enter the OMMT galleries, leading to well‐dispersed OMMT in the UP matrix. The mechanical properties and thermal properties of OMMT nanocomposites were improved. With OMMT loading of 5 wt %, the tensile strength and flexural strength can be improved by 22% and 38%, respectively. Meanwhile, the onset thermal decomposition temperature (T–10) value was ameliorated from 310.6 °C to 330.6 °C. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45251.