A study of structure and tensile properties of polyamide 12/clay nanocomposites

The nanocomposites are multiphase materials whereat least one phase is in nanoscale, less than 100 nm, whereby a higher specific interfacial area is achieved.Due to their characteristic properties, the nanocompo-sites are nowadays being increasingly used for theengineering applications, and certainly will have a sig-nificant role in the materials production in the future.An important class of nanocomposite materials arepolymer layered silicates, in which the layered filler(mostly modified natural clay minerals) is dispersed inthe polymer matrix. Many of parameters (i.e., type ofpolymer matrix, type and amount of nanofiller, and anumber of process parameters as melting temperature, screw speed, number and shape of mixing screws, etc) affect properties of nanocomposites. As part ofthe paper, the samples of PA12/nanoclay nanocompo-site mixture were made by adjusting various parame-ters (content of nanoclay, the screw rotation frequencyand mixture temperature). Afterward, the tensile prop-erties of obtained specimens were analysed. Themathematical models that show dependence of tensileproperties on the mixture parameters were obtainedas the result of analysis.