Effects of Addition Order of the Components on Polyamide-6/Organoclay/Elastomer Ternary Nanocomposites

The effects of addition order of the components for ethylene–glycidyl methacrylate (E‐GMA) copolymers and two types of organoclays (Cloisite® 15A and Cloisite® 30B) on morphology and mechanical properties of polyamide‐6/elastomer/organoclay ternary nanocomposites were investigated by x‐ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses, melt flow index (MFI) measurements, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and tensile and impact tests. Four different addition orders (All‐S, PI‐C, PC‐I, and IC‐P) were applied through melt blending in a twin‐screw extruder. All‐S indicates that the elastomer, the organoclay, and polyamide‐6 were compounded in the extruder simultaneously, and the resulting compound was extruded once more. The other symbols represent the components for the two extrusions. P, I, and C stand for polyamide‐6, elastomer, and organoclay, respectively. The first two ingredients were compounded in the first extrusion, and the resulting compound was mixed with the third component in the second extrusion run. For polyamide‐6/ Cloisite® 15A/E‐GMA nanocomposites processed by PI‐C and IC‐P addition orders, stacked silicate layers were observed in the TEM micrographs. On the contrary, the nanocomposites with Cloisite® 30B gave the best result in terms of intercalation/exfoliation in the IC‐P sequence. Generally, for Cloisite® 15A containing ternary nanocomposites, the All‐S addition order gave the highest impact strength, tensile strength, and Young's modulus owing to potential interactions between the functional groups of the three components. For polyamide‐6/Cloisite® 30B/E‐GMA ternary nanocomposites, the PC‐I mixing sequence produced the highest Young's modulus. For these nanocomposites, impact and tensile strengths and elongation at break were relatively insensitive to the mixing order. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 32: E675–E691, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/adv.21310