Relaxation behavior in clay-reinforced polymer nanocomposites

The effect of clay reinforcement on dielectric, conductivity, and mechanical relaxation behavior of a polymer clay nanocomposite film is reported. Polymer nanocomposite is composed of three component polymers (polyacrylonitrile) as a host matrix, salt (LiPF6) as conducting species, and clay (sodium montmorillonite) as intercalant. The macroscopic parameters like polymer glass transition temperature and available free mobile charge carriers have been analyzed properly using dynamic mechanical analysis and dielectric analysis. Dielectric analysis indicated distribution of relaxation time as a function of clay concentration, whereas conductivity spectrum exhibited dispersion at lower frequency followed by saturation region at intermediate frequency. The dispersion behavior is related to the electrode polarization attributed to faster ion dynamics. The dielectric and conductivity relaxation are in excellent correlation with mechanical relaxation owing to the changes in glass transition temperature due to polymer-ion-clay interaction. The proposed mechanism is a sequel to the experimental results.