The mechanical and optical properties of the PVB nanocomposites

Poly (vinyl butyral) (PVB) is an industrially important polymer used in laminated safety glass for its very high adhesion to glass and excellent optical properties. Clay nanofillers - clays have been frequently used in recent research. In the case of PVB, there is a possibility to deteriorate its good optical and adhesive properties. Therefore this study is focused on evaluation of optical properties of PVB nanocomposites. These were prepared by kneading in Brabender, matrix was plasticized PVB with modified nanoclay montmorillonite as fillers, namely Cloisite Na+. The nanoclay was modified by a grafting method; three different types of intercalation agents were used for the modification, 3-minopropyltriethoxysilane (APS), trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) and octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS). The modification of nanoclay was done in the proportion of nanoclay to silanes - 1:0.3. The samples were compared with pure PVB and nanocomposites with commercially modified montmorillonite, Cloisite 30B. Films of the composites were prepared by hot press molding. All nanocomposite samples had loading 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 of nanoclay. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscope, tensile test and spectrophotometer. XRD determined that PVB nanocomposites reached intercalated/exfoliated structure. The Break stress of PVB nanocomposites was increased for most nanofillers. The light transmission of the PVB nanocomposites was analyzed by spectrophotometer. The data showed that the light transmission decreases with increasing loading level of nanoclay and the light transmission was significantly different for every nanofiller.