Preparation and rheological behaviors of PA6/SiO2 nanocompiste

Abstract

The polyamide 6 (PA6)/SiO₂ nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization and the rheological behaviors were investigated. The morphology of resultant materials was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the rheological behaviors were characterized by capillary rheometer. The results showed that the SiO₂ particle size was around 50 nm and the particles dispersed evenly in PA6 matrix. The nanocomposites were pesudoplastic fluids and the apparent viscosities of nanocomposites increased initially and then decreased with the increase in nano-SiO₂ content at the same temperature. The non-Newtonian indexes of nanocomposites were smaller than those of pure PA6. With the increase in nano-SiO₂ content the apparent viscous activation energies of nanocomposites increased initially and then decreased. The rheological behaviors revealed that there were strong interactions between PA6 macromolecule chains and nano-SiO₂ particles.

Keywords

Nylon 6, nano-silica, rheological behavior, nanocomposite