New nanocomposite materials based on plasticized poly(L-lactide) and organo-modified montmorillonites: thermal and morphological study

Plasticized poly(L-lactide) (PLA) based nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending of the matrix with 20 wt% of poly(ethyleneglycol) 1000 (PEG 1000) and different amounts of montmorillonite, organo-modified or not. The intercalation of the polymer chains between the aluminosilicates layers and morphological structure of the filled PLAs were analysed by wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were performed to study the thermal behaviour of the prepared composites. At constant filler level, it appears that from all the clays studied, the montmorillonite organo-modified by bis-(2-hydroxyethyl)methyl (hydrogenated tallowalkyl) ammonium cations brings the greater effect in terms of thermal stability. Increasing the amount of clay allows to delay the onset of thermal degradation of the plasticized polymer matrix. It was also pointed out, by WAXS and DSC analyses, that it exists a real competition between PEG 1000 and PLA for the intercalation into the interlayer spacing of the clay. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.