Comparing Nanofillers in Polylactide Nanocomposites

The present study compares the effects of two different types of nanosized fillers (silica and montmorillonite) at three different weight fractions as well their mixtures on the thermomechanical properties of polylactide (PLA). The role of aggregation and interphase was investigated with several experimental techniques including DSC, WAXS, SEM and tensile measurements. The experimental results clearly suggest that silica and montmorilonite have different reinforcing and toughnening effects on PLA, while the combination of the two different nanofillers seems to have a detrimental effect on the total interphase volume of the material. Four micromechanics models (Mori-Tanaka, Chen, Taya-Chu and Odegard), describing the Young's modulus of the nanocomposites, were used to study the different matrix-nanofiller interactions.