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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Previous Contents Vol 58(6)

CO₂ Foaming of Polymer Nanocomposite Blends

Xiangmin Han ^A , L. James Lee ^A ^B and David L. Tomasko ^A ^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.

^B Corresponding authors. Email: tomasko.1@osu.edu; lee.31@osu.edu

Australian Journal of Chemistry 58(6) 492-503 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH05071
Submitted: 23 March 2005 Accepted: 26 April 2005 Published: 14 June 2005

Abstract

Nanoparticles are suitable to nucleate small foam cells and simultaneously reinforce the thin foam cell walls. In this paper, it is found that the foam morphology and the physical properties are greatly influenced by the dispersion of nanoclay, the clay surface modification, and the nanocomposite blend morphology. The addition of nanoclay to polystyrene (PS) strongly affects the nucleation of foam bubbles, especially after exfoliation and proper surface modification. CO₂ appears to nucleate on the solid clay surface with a CO₂-affinitive surface modifier. PS/(PMMA/MHABS) nanocomposite blends composed of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate)/nanoclay exfoliated nanocomposite show an unexpected trend that bubble nucleation inversely correlates with domain size, where the bigger PMMA/MHABS domains are significant in nucleating more bubbles. The total influence volume, formed by the CO₂ diffusion from the PMMA/MHABS phase to the PS phase where CO₂ concentration decreases from a high value in the former to a low value in the latter, is related to the domain size and determines the nucleation efficiency in the PS phase. The physical properties of PS nanocomposites exhibit unique behaviour in the presence of CO₂.

The authors thank Owens Corning and Southern Clay for material donations. Financial support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program (NIST–ATP), the National Science Foundation (NSF DMI-0200324), and the National Science Foundation sponsored Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering (CAPCE) at the Ohio State University are gratefully acknowledged.

References

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