Mechanical properties of nylon 6-clay hybrid

Various nylon 6-clay hybrids, such as molecular composites of nylon 6 and silicate layers of montmorillonite and saponite, NCH’s and NCHP’s, respectively, have been synthesized. To estimate the mechanical properties of these hybrids, tensile, flexural, impact, and heat distortion tests were carried out.

NCH was found superior in strength and modulus and comparable in impact strength to nylon 6. The heat distortion temperature (HDT) of NCH (montmorillonite: 4.7 wt. %) was 152 °C, which was 87 °C higher than that of nylon 6. In NCHP, saponite had a smaller effect on the increase of these mechanical properties.

The modulus and HDT of NCH and NCHP increased with an increase in the amount of clay minerals. It was found that these properties were well described by the contribution of the constrained region calculated from the storage and loss modulus at the glass transition temperature. According to the mixing law on elastic modulus, the following expression was obtained between the modulus E at 120 °C and the fraction of the constrained region C, En = Ecn = C, where the values of n and Ec (modulus of the constrained region) were 0.685 and 1.02 GPa, respectively.