Morphological,thermal and mechanical properties of nanoclay-filled polyethylene oxide nanocomposites

Polyethylene oxide (peo) and nanoclay/polyethylene oxide nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting technique. to know about the morphology,scanning electron microscopy (sem) was performed which indicated that the nanoclay was dispersed and embedded well within the polymer matrix. the polarized optical micrographs (pom) study of pure peo showed considerable size of distinct crystalline spherulites. the size of spherulites were decreased by the incorporation of nanoclay into the polymer matrix. it might be due to the nucleation effect of nanoclay in nanoclay/peo composite which might result small size spherulites. the differential thermal calorimetry (dsc) thermograms presented that the melting temperature (tm) of pure peo is about 65 °c while the tm peak of the nanocomposites were shifted towards slightly lower temperature. it was also observed that the mechanical properties (stress and young's modulus) of the nanoclay/peo nanocomposites were higher than pure peo. the thermal stability of the nanoclay/peo composite was shifted towards higher temperature (about 25 °c higher than pure peo) by the incorporation of 1 wt. % nanoclay into the peo matrix.