Studies on nylon-6/EVOH/clay ternary composites

Nylon-6 (Ny-6)/EVOH blends are interesting host multiphase systems for incorporation of low clay contents. The Ny-6/EVOH blend is a unique system, which tends to chemically react during melt-mixing, affecting thermal, morphological and mechanical properties of the ternary systems containing clay. The addition of clay seems to interrupt the chemical reaction between the host polymers at certain compositions, leading to lower blending torque levels when clay is added. A competition between Ny-6 and EVOH regarding the intercalation process takes place. Ny-6 seems to lead to exfoliated structure, whereas EVOH forms intercalated structure, as revealed from XRD and TEM analyses, owing to thermodynamic considerations and preferential localization of the clay in Ny-6. Hence, the ternary systems have combined intercalated and delaminated morphology or complete exfoliated morphology depending on blend composition and clay content. Selective extraction experiments (gel content) indicate the formation of chemical reaction between the Ny-6 and EVOH, and give an indirect indication of the polymer content residing in the galleries. The thermal properties of the polymers were found to be affected by the occurrence of chemical reaction, the level of intercalation and exfoliation and plasticizing effect of the low molecular weight onium ions treating the clay. Of special interest is the increased storage modulus attained upon the addition of only 1.5 wt% clay.