Investigation on thermal, mechanical and morphological behaviours of organo nanoclay incorporated epoxy nanocomposites

A series of epoxy nanocomposites have been prepared with varying compositions viz., 0, 1, 3, and 5 wt % organically modified montmorillonite (MMT) clay. The effects of MMT nanoclay content on the physico-mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy nanocomposites have been studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) have been employed to investigate the thermal characteristics and their mode of thermal degradation. The TGA thermograms of nanocomposites exhibits higher decomposition temperature behaviours compared to the pristine epoxy. It was found that the thermal degradation of all epoxy nanocomposites takes place in one step. All the nanocompsoites were stable upto 221 °C. The thermal degradation kinetic parameters of the composites have been calculated using two mathematical models namely, Coats-Redfern and Broido’s methods. The rheology of polymer was envisaged by DMA is affected on the polymer nanocomposite. Morphological behavioours of epoxy/o-MMT nanocomposites assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) method.