Dramatically Enhanced Mechanical Performance of Nylon-6 Magnetic Composites with Nanostructured Hybrid One-Dimensional Carbon Nanotube-Two-Dimensional Clay Nanoplatelet Heterostructures

Mechanically robust, magnetic nylon-6 nano-composites reinforced by one-dimensional (ID) carbon nano-tube (CNT)-two-dimensional (2D) clay nanoplatelet hybrids have been prepared using a simple melt-compounding technique. The direct iron-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of multiwalled CNTs utilizes iron oxide-immobilized clay nanoplatelets as substrates, carrying out in situ intercalation and exfoliation of clay nanoplatelets. By using such a hybridization and coexfoliation method, the as-obtained heterostructured hybrids used without any purification are demonstrated to be ideal and excellent nanofillers for mechanical reinforcement for fabricating nylon-6 nanocomposites, due to their homogeneous dispersion and strong interfacial interaction with the polymer matrix. The nucleation sites provided by the nanohybrids seem to be favorable to the formation of thermodynamically stable a-phase crystals of nylon-6 with much higher stiffness and hardness than gamma-form of nylon-6, namely, a silicate-induced crystal transformation from the alpha-form to the gamma-form of nylon-6 was greatly inhibited or shielded by the CNT-wrapped clay nanoplatelets. Furthermore, the nanostructured CNT-clay hybrid heterostructures containing residual iron oxide nanoparticles show novel magnetic properties in both bulk solids and polymer nanocomposites. Therefore, this can be probably developed into a facile and practical method to fabricate polymer nanocomposites with high performance and multifunctionality.