Layered calcium phenylphosphonate: a hybrid material for a new generation of nanofillers.

Kateřina Kopecká,Ludvík Beneš,Petr Knotek,Vítězslav Zima,Klára Melánová,Kateřina Zetková

doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.269

Kateřina Kopecká, Ludvík Beneš + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.9.269

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Abstract

The use of nanosheets of layered calcium phenylphosphonate as a filler in a polymeric matrix was investigated. Layered calcium phenylphosphonate (CaPhP), with chemical formula CaC6H5PO3∙2H2O, is a hybrid organic–inorganic material that exhibits a hydrophobic character due to the presence of phenyl groups on the surface of the layers. In this paper, various CaPhP synthesis methods were studied with the aim of obtaining a product most suitable for its subsequent exfoliation. The liquid-based approach was used for the exfoliation. It was found that the most promising technique for the exfoliation of CaPhP in an amount sufficient for incorporation into polymers involved using propan-2-ol with a strong shear force generated in a high-shear disperser. The filler was tested both in its unexfoliated and exfoliated forms for the preparation of polymer composites, for which a low molecular weight epoxy resin based on bisphenol A was used as a polymer matrix. The prepared samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopy, and dynamic mechanical analysis. Flammability and gas permeation tests were also performed. The addition of the nanofiller was found to influence the composite properties – the exfoliated particles were found to have a higher impact on the properties of the prepared composites than the unexfoliated particles of the same loading

Highlights

The idea to combine materials with different properties to create a composite that benefits from a synergistic effect and to gain better and novel materials by this way is a very old concept.The reinforcement of a polymer matrix with inorganic fillers with the aim to improve their stiffness, melt behavior, mechanical characteristic, durability and other properties of polymerBeilstein J
The aim of this work was to study layered calcium phenylphosphonate, CaC6H5PO3∙2H2O, as a potential filler for an epoxy resin. This material was chosen as it can be incorporated into a polymer matrix as a bulk material but it can be used as a precursor for the preparation of nanosheets by exfoliation and can thereby serve as a component of nanocomposites
The most suitable method for exfoliation was determined to be a treatment in alcohols, namely propan-2-ol, by an action of strong shear force generated by high-shear dispersers

Summary

Introduction

The idea to combine materials with different properties to create a composite that benefits from a synergistic effect and to gain better and novel materials by this way is a very old concept.The reinforcement of a polymer matrix with inorganic fillers with the aim to improve their stiffness, melt behavior, mechanical characteristic, durability and other properties of polymerBeilstein J. Convenient interactions among functional groups of the polymer chain and the surface groups of the filler are necessary to retain the nanoscale character of the filler and to protect it from the formation of agglomerates in order to achieve a homogenous distribution within the volume of the polymer matrix. This is a drawback for natural clays as they are usually hydrophilic, their application is more suitable for water-based systems. This limitation can be overcome by intercalation of organic molecules into the structure or by a surface modification [3,4] by grafting organophilic functional groups onto the clay surface, leading to the synthesis of hybrid organic–inorganic materials [5]

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