Preparation and characterization of titanate-modified Boehmite-polyamide-6 nanocomposites

This work reports the use of titanate-modified Boehmite particles in making polyamide-6 nanocomposites complementary to our previous work, which discussed the use of unmodified Boehmite. A new method for the surface modification of Boehmite has been applied. The characterization methods include transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA). DSC reveals that addition of titanate-modified Boehmite favours the formation of the gamma-phase, especially at higher concentrations. Melting temperatures of alpha- and gamma-phases show a slight decrease with Boehmite concentration. The samples have almost identical degree of crystallinity. Upon addition of the titanate-modified Boehmite particles, a two-fold increase in the storage modulus of the matrix polymer is obtained. The advantage of using titanate-modified Boehmite is that higher amounts of nano-particles can be introduced into the matrix polymer, and therefore higher modulus values can be obtained. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.