PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PA6/ANTIBACTERIAL VERMICULITE COMPOSITES

The vermiculite was chosen as the carrier of bactericide,and it was modified by being carried with Ag or /and intercalated with hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide(HDTMA.Br) by ionic exchange,thus three types of antibacterial vermiculite were obtained.The antibacterial vermiculite was mixed with PA6 through melting to prepare the PA6 /vermiculits composites.The antibacterial ability and physical mechanical properties of the composites were tested,and vermiculite ’s dispersion in PA6 and tensile fracture were observed by TEM and SEM.The composite containing Ag-loaded and organo-intercalated vermiculite have obvious bacteriostatic ring,and its antimicrobial ratio to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus cereus is respectively 94% and more than 99.9%.The tensile and flexural properties of PA6 were improved,in comparison with the pure PA6,the elastic modulus,tensile strength,flexural modulus and flexural strength of the composite increased by 126.8%,17.4%,33.1% and 30.3%,respectively.The thermal distortion temperature rose about 51 K.The dynamic storage modulus was increased largely,mechanical loss was lowered.TEM photographs showed that the vermiculite dispersed evenly in PA6 matrix and was exfoliated to about 200 nm in length and about 10 nm in width,so the nanocomposites had formed between vermiculite and PA6.