the effect of covalently modification of montmorillonite by 3-glycidoxy propyl trimethoxysilane on its dispersibility in tpu/mmt nanocomposite

In this work, the silylation of sodium montmorillonite (na+-mmt) was performed using (3-glycidoxypropyl)trimethoxy silane (gptms)# different amount of the silane were used to modify clay surface# thermoplastic polyurethane (tpu)/clay nanocomposites were produced by incorporation of 3wt % loading organically modified montmorillonite clay (smmt) in tpu matrix by melt-mixing route#the grafting/intercalation of the gptms inside the na+-mt interlayer spaces was studied by means of thermogravimetric analysis (tga) and fourier transform infrared (ftir)# thermoplastic polyurethane (tpu)/clay nanocomposites were analyzed by means of low angle x-ray diffraction (xrd)# the results showed that silane grafting improved the nanoclay dispersibility in tpu matrix, possibly due to the improved interaction between the hydrophilic mineral platelets of clay and tpu chains# the best result was found for smmt2#