Properties enhancement of PS nanocomposites through the POSS surfactants

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-clay hybrids of polystyrene are prepared by two organically modified clays using POSS-NH2 and C-20-POSS as intercalated agents. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show the formation of these POSS/clay/PS nanocomposites in all cases with the disappearance of the peaks corresponding to the basal spacing of MMT. Transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) was used to investigate the morphology of these nanocomposites and indicates that these nanocomposites are composed of a random dispersion of exfoliated clay platelets throughout the PS matrix. Incorporation of these exfoliated clay platelets into the PS matrix led to effectively increase in glass transition temperature (T-g), thermal decomposition temperature (T-d), and the maximum reduction in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is ca. 40% for the C-20-POSS/clay nanocomposite. Copyright (C) 2008 Huei-Kuan Fu et al.