Polar and Non-Polar Solvent Permeation Resistance of Blow-Molded Bottles of Polyethylene/Blends of Modified Polyamide and Polyamide 6 Clay Nanocomposite

Abstract

Investigations on white spirit and acetone permeation resistance of modified polyamide and nylon 6 clay (MPANYC) blends and their corresponding polyethylene/MPANYC bottles were reported in this study. The white spirit and acetone permeation resistance of MPANYC sheets improve consistently with increasing NYC contents present in MPANYC resins after blending nylon 6 clay (NYC) in modified polyamide (MPA) resins. However, the order of barrier improvement of the PE/MPANYC and PE/NYC bottle specimens is not corresponding to the order of barrier improvement of the MPANYC and/or NYC barrier resins added in PE. The blow-molded PE/NYC bottle specimen exhibits similarly worse white spirit and acetone solvent permeation resistance as the PE bottle specimen, wherein no clearly formed NYC laminas but only dispersed NYC droplets or agglomerates were found on the fracture surfaces of the PE/NYC bottles. However, after blending optimum compositions of MPANYC in PE, the PE/MPANYC bottles with demarcated MPANYC laminas exhibit significantly better white spirit and acetone permeation resistance than the PE/MPA bottle, wherein the white spirit and acetone permeation rates of the PE/MPA8NYC1 bottle are about 1.3 and 1.4 times slower than those of the PE/MPA bottle, respectively. In order to understand these interesting barrier properties of PE/MPANYC and PE/NYC bottles, rheological, thermal, wide angle X-ray diffraction and morphological properties of the base MPANYC and NYC resins and their corresponding morphology present in the blow-molded bottles were investigated.