Quantitative characterization of clay dispersion in polypropylene-clay nanocomposites by combined transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy

Shaobo Xie; Eileen Harkin-Jones; Yucai Shen; Peter Hornsby; Marion McAfee; Tony McNally; Raj Patel; Hadj Benkreira; Phil Coates

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2009.10.042

Quantitative characterization of clay dispersion in polypropylene-clay nanocomposites by combined transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy

Shaobo Xie, Eileen Harkin-Jones, Yucai Shen, Peter Hornsby, Marion McAfee, Tony McNally, Raj Patel, Hadj Benkreira, Phil Coates

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method to describe the microstructure of polymer/clay nanocomposites quantitatively. Based on the image analyses of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy micrographs, two parameters, degree of dispersion (χ) and mean interparticle distance per unit volume of clay (λ_V) are proposed to describe the level of clay dispersion. The degree of dispersion gives the percentage of exfoliation, and λ_V is a measure of spatial separation between particles relative to clay loading. A polypropylene/clay system was chosen as an example to show the effects of processing conditions and biaxial stretching on clay dispersion using the proposed quantifiers. It provides insights into the 'real' clay dispersion using a combination of both microscopical and macroscopical aspects.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	185-188
Number of pages	4
Journal	Materials Letters
Volume	64
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2009.10.042
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 31 Jan 2010

Keywords

Image analysis
Microstructure
Nanocomposites
Optical microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

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10.1016/j.matlet.2009.10.042

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title = "Quantitative characterization of clay dispersion in polypropylene-clay nanocomposites by combined transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy",

abstract = "This paper presents a novel method to describe the microstructure of polymer/clay nanocomposites quantitatively. Based on the image analyses of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy micrographs, two parameters, degree of dispersion (χ) and mean interparticle distance per unit volume of clay (λV) are proposed to describe the level of clay dispersion. The degree of dispersion gives the percentage of exfoliation, and λV is a measure of spatial separation between particles relative to clay loading. A polypropylene/clay system was chosen as an example to show the effects of processing conditions and biaxial stretching on clay dispersion using the proposed quantifiers. It provides insights into the 'real' clay dispersion using a combination of both microscopical and macroscopical aspects.",

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author = "Shaobo Xie and Eileen Harkin-Jones and Yucai Shen and Peter Hornsby and Marion McAfee and Tony McNally and Raj Patel and Hadj Benkreira and Phil Coates",

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AU - Xie, Shaobo

AU - Harkin-Jones, Eileen

AU - Shen, Yucai

AU - Hornsby, Peter

AU - McAfee, Marion

AU - McNally, Tony

AU - Patel, Raj

AU - Benkreira, Hadj

AU - Coates, Phil

PY - 2010/1/31

Y1 - 2010/1/31

N2 - This paper presents a novel method to describe the microstructure of polymer/clay nanocomposites quantitatively. Based on the image analyses of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy micrographs, two parameters, degree of dispersion (χ) and mean interparticle distance per unit volume of clay (λV) are proposed to describe the level of clay dispersion. The degree of dispersion gives the percentage of exfoliation, and λV is a measure of spatial separation between particles relative to clay loading. A polypropylene/clay system was chosen as an example to show the effects of processing conditions and biaxial stretching on clay dispersion using the proposed quantifiers. It provides insights into the 'real' clay dispersion using a combination of both microscopical and macroscopical aspects.

AB - This paper presents a novel method to describe the microstructure of polymer/clay nanocomposites quantitatively. Based on the image analyses of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy micrographs, two parameters, degree of dispersion (χ) and mean interparticle distance per unit volume of clay (λV) are proposed to describe the level of clay dispersion. The degree of dispersion gives the percentage of exfoliation, and λV is a measure of spatial separation between particles relative to clay loading. A polypropylene/clay system was chosen as an example to show the effects of processing conditions and biaxial stretching on clay dispersion using the proposed quantifiers. It provides insights into the 'real' clay dispersion using a combination of both microscopical and macroscopical aspects.

KW - Image analysis

KW - Microstructure

KW - Nanocomposites

KW - Optical microscopy

KW - Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

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JO - Materials Letters

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Quantitative characterization of clay dispersion in polypropylene-clay nanocomposites by combined transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy

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Keywords

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