Shear‐induced migration of nanoclay during morphology evolution of PBT/PS blend

Abstract

Abstract In this study, we investigated clay migration and its localization in multiphase blend nanocomposite systems during the evolution of blend morphology to elucidate how a hydrodynamic stress and chemical affinity between the polymer and clay induce them. To observe the morphology evolution, a multilayered blend, alternatively superposed poly(butylenes terephthalate) (PBT) and polystyrene (PS)/clay films or PBT/clay and PS films, was subjected to homogeneous shear flow, 1 s −1 . Furthermore, the morphology was observed at different shear rates 1 s −1 . When the PBT/(PS/clay) multilayered blend is subjected to flow, the clay dispersed in the PS layer first migrates to the interface depending on the amount of applied strain. The clay at the interface causes the average drop size of blend morphology to become smaller and the blend morphology becomes more stable because of the coalescence suppression effect. As more shear is applied, the clay at the interface moves further into more compatible phase, PBT, although the viscosity of PBT is higher than PS. On the contrary, the clay in the PBT layer does not migrate to the PS phase at any shear rate, which means that its chemical affinity is strong enough to prevent shear‐induced migration. The clay increases the viscosity of the PBT phase and results in a different morphology with a droplet, cocontinuous structure. As a result, when the clay is induced to migrate by hydrodynamic stress, it migrates into thermodynamically more stable positions at the interface or in the chemically more compatible phase, depending on the applied strain. Once it is located at a thermodynamically more stable position, it is difficult to push it out only by hydrodynamic stress. The location of clay is significantly affected by the morphology during evolution, which means that the blend morphology can control the droplet form and cocontinuous structure by control of the clay migration kinetics. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008