Effect of extrusion reprocessing on the mechanical, thermal, rheological and morphological properties of nylon 6/talc nanocomposites

In this study, the preparation of nylon 6/talc nanocomposites was studied by melt blending in a co-rotating twin-screw extruder having length/diameter ratio of 32:1 at a screw rotation speed of 100 r min(-1). Concentration of nanotalc was varied from 1 phr to 5 phr in nylon 6. The composite samples were subjected to a series of three extrusion cycles, and the effect of reprocessing on the structural properties of materials was investigated. Properties such as mechanical (tensile flexural and impact), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry), morphological (scanning electron microscopy), rheological (viscosity vs. shear rate), and colour spectrophotometry were investigated. This study would enrich the knowledge about the recycling of nylon 6, with the additional aspect of the use of collected data from more complex system, that is, composite materials, where the nanotalc particles play a role in the interactions initiated by repeated extrusion processing. Mechanical, thermal, rheological and colour properties improved with the increase in nanotalc in nylon 6 and remained nearly unchanged up to second extrusion processing. However, all the properties decreased on third extrusion processing due to the degradation of nylon 6 matrix.