Morphology and physico-mechanical properties of polymer-clay nanocomposites

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorLaryea, George
dc.date.accessioned2011-08-25T11:01:44Z
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-19T01:07:27Z
dc.date.available2011-08-25T11:01:44Z
dc.date.available2023-04-19T01:07:27Z
dc.date.issued2007-08-25
dc.descriptionA Thesis submitted to The Department of Physics , Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Physics, 2007en_US
dc.description.abstractMorphology and physico-mechanical properties (i.e. apparent porosity, bulk density, percentage water absorbed, flexural strength, flexural modulus, compressive strength and compressive Soodulus) of polymer-clay nanocomposites have been studied. Polymer-clay nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating nanometer-size Mfensi clay particles into a low-density polyethylene matrix using melt intercalation method. X-ray diffraction was used to characterize internal structure of the polymer-clay nanocomposites. The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the organoclay particles stacked together forming tactoids in the polymer matrix resulting in polymer-clay nanocomposites to have stacked intercalated structure as their internal structure. Compared with the physico-mechanical properties of the pure polymer (i.e. 0% ^Organoclay), much improvements were obtained for the apparent porosity (0.11%) att2%, for the bulk density (1.75 Kgm"3) at 4%, for the percentage water absorbed (0.05%) at 2%, for the flexural strength (11.99 MPa) at 6%, and for the flexural modulus (0.76 GPa) at 6% of the organoclay loading in the polymer-clay nanocomposites. The pure polymer (i.e. 0% Organoclay) ^was observed to have better compressive strength (15.54 MPa) and compressive modulus (0.35 ]GPa) compared with the polymer-clay nanocomposites at all organoclay loading (i.e. 2% - 10%) >of the polymer-clay nanocomposites. The results indicated that, the improvements in material properties of the polymer-clay nanocomposites observed depend on the level of interaction between the nanometer-size clay particles and the polymer matrix. The changes in the material properties of the polymer-clay nanocomposites observed have been explained by the level of interaction between the nanometer-size clay particles and the polymer matrix.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipKNUSTen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.knust.edu.gh/handle/123456789/1158
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries4941;
dc.titleMorphology and physico-mechanical properties of polymer-clay nanocompositesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
KNUST Library.pdf
Size:
7.09 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed to upon submission
Description:
Download
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed to upon submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Student Thesis