Title: PLA nanocomposites: quantification of clay nanodispersion and reaction to fire

Authors: S. Bourbigot, G. Fontaine, S. Duquesne, R. Delobel

Addresses: Procedes d'Elaboration des Revetements Fonctionnels (PERF), LSPES UMR-CNRS 8008, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille (ENSCL), BP 90108, 59652 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. ' Procedes d'Elaboration des Revetements Fonctionnels (PERF), LSPES UMR-CNRS 8008, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille (ENSCL), BP 90108, 59652 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. ' Procedes d'Elaboration des Revetements Fonctionnels (PERF), LSPES UMR-CNRS 8008, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille (ENSCL), BP 90108, 59652 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. ' Procedes d'Elaboration des Revetements Fonctionnels (PERF), LSPES UMR-CNRS 8008, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille (ENSCL), BP 90108, 59652 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France

Abstract: In this work, the morphology of polylactide (PLA)/clay nanocomposite is quantitatively characterised by a novel solid state NMR method. Depending on the preparation conditions (low or high shear stress), about half of the available polymer/clay interfacial area is formed and the degree of homogeneity characterising the distribution of this interfacial area is about 40% at high shear stress. On the contrary at low shear stress, montmorillonite (MMT) platelets are evenly dispersed in PLA associated with an available polymer/clay interfacial area close to one and high degree of homogeneity (81%). The presence of clay in PLA (exfoliated morphology) leads to a significant decrease of peak of heat release rate measured by cone calorimetry by oxygen consumption.

Keywords: solid state NMR; polymer nanocomposites; flame retardancy; clay nanodispersion; polylactide; PLA; heat release rate; cone calorimetry; oxygen consumption; nanotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2008.018690

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2008 Vol.5 No.6/7/8, pp.683 - 692

Published online: 14 Jun 2008 *

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