Fabrication and Characterization of Flame-Retardant Nanocomposites based on ethylene Vinyl Acetate and Cationic Clay

Abstract

Polymer/layered silicate (PLS) nanocomposites have attracted great interest, because they have shown remarkable effects in mechanical properties, thermal stability and flame retardants. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of particle size and organic modifier of clay in ethylene-vinyl acetate/clay composites. First, different particle sized pristine smectite clays, S1ME and Laponite-XLG, were selected and the pristine clays were modified with two different akyl ammonium surfactants. Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)/pristine clay or organoclay masterbatches were prepared with solution blending to prevent the loss of clay and to introduce the well dispersion. Nanocomposites were compounded via melt blending with the masterbatches and maleic anhydride grafted EVA (MA-g- EVA) as compatablizing agent. In addition, the optimum organoclay for mechanical properties and flame retardants was selected and determined of various concentrations. The nanocomposites were characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy to ii determine the organic modification. Modification effect on the dispersion was investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Universal testing machine (UTM) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were used to study tensile properties and dynamic mechanical property of the nanocomposites. To investigate the thermal degradation, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed. The final nanocomposites were characterized in terms of flame retardant properties by cone calorimeter.