Abstract
a b s t r a c t Polymer-clay nanocomposite (PCN) films were fabricated by uniformly dispersing organically modi- fied montmorillonite clay (Cloisite 20A and 30B) in varying concentrations of 2%, 5%, 10% and 15% (w/w) in an optimized composition of aliphatic urethane acrylate (AUA)-Trimethylolpropane triacry- late (TMPTA) mixture by ultra-sonication followed by 60 Co-gamma radiation induced curing. Radiation doses were optimized to obtain non-tacky, homogeneous thin films, which were subsequently char- acterized by UV-vis spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning elec- tron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. Gloss of the PCN films decreased, and fracture toughness and hardness of PCN films improved with the incorporation of the clay in the PCN coatings. Limiting Oxygen Indices (LOIs) of the samples were calculated from the thermogravimetric analyses data to ascertain the efficacy of the PCN films as potential flame retardant materials.
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