Polymer/clay nanocomposite having improved gas barrier comprising a clay material with a mixture of two or more organic cations and a process for preparing same
AssigneeUniversity of South Carolina Research Foundation
InventorsJohn Walker Gilmer, Robert Boyd Barbee, James Christopher Matayabas, Jr., Tie Lan
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Abstract
This invention relates to a polymer-clay nanocomposite having an improved gas permeability comprising (i) a melt-processible matrix polymer, and incorporated therein (ii) a layered clay material intercalated with a mixture of at least two organic cations. The invention also relates to processes for preparing a nanocomposite and articles produced from a nanocomposite.
Claims42
A polymer-clay nanocomposite having an improved gas barrier comprising:
- (i) a melt-processible matrix polymer, and incorporated therein,
- (ii) a clay-organic cation intercalate comprising a layered clay material intercalated with a mixture of at least two organic cations,
- wherein
- a) at least 75 percent of the layered clay material is dispersed in the form of individual platelet particles and tactoids having a thickness of less than or equal to 20 nm in the matrix polymer,
- b) the organic cations comprise a mixture of polyalkoxylated ammonium ions and the polyalkoxylated ammonium ions are derived from an oligooxyethylene amine, an oligooxypropylene amine, an octadecyl methyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15]) ammonium salt, or octadecyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15])amine, wherein the numbers in brackets are the average of the total number of ethylene oxide units.
A process for preparing a polymer-clay nanocomposite having an improved gas barrier comprising the steps of:
- (i) preparing an intercalated layered clay material by reacting a swellable layered clay material with a mixture of at least two organic cations, and
- (ii) incorporating the intercalated layered clay material in a matrix polymer by melt processing the matrix polymer with the intercalated clay,
- wherein
- a) at least 75 percent of the layered clay material is dispersed in the form of individual platelet particles and tactoids having a thickness of less than or equal to 20 nm in the matrix polymer, and
- b) the organic cations comprise a mixture of polyalkoxylated ammonium ions and the polyalkoxylated ammonium ions are derived from an oligooxyethylene amine, an oligooxypropylene amine, an octadecyl methyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15]) ammonium salt, or octadecyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15])amine, wherein the numbers in brackets are the average of the total number of ethylene oxide units.
A process for preparing a polymer-clay nanocomposite having an improved gas barrier comprising the steps of:
- (i) preparing an intercalated layered clay material by reacting a swellable-layered clay material with a mixture of at least two organic cations,
- (ii) adding the clay material to components for forming a polymer, and
- (iii) conducting the polycondensation polymerization of the components in the presence of the clay material to form a matrix polymer,
- wherein
- a) at least 75 percent of the layered clay material is dispersed in the form of individual platelet particles and tactoids having a thickness of less than or equal to 20 nm in the matrix polymer, and
- b) the organic cations comprise a mixture of polyalkoxylated ammonium ions and the polyalkoxylated ammonium ions are derived from an oligooxyethylene amine, an oligooxypropylene amine, an octadecyl methyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15]) ammonium salt, or octadecyl bis(polyoxyethylene[15])amine, wherein the numbers in brackets are average of the total number of ethylene oxide units.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.