Rheological behavior of novel polyamide 6/silica nanocomposites containing epoxy resins

Abstract

A novel polyamide 6/silica nanocomposite containing epoxy resins (EPA6N) was prepared via in situ polymerization using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor of silica. The dynamic rheological properties of pure PA6 and EPA6N at temperatures of 225 and 235 °C were investigated. The results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicate that the silica particles are well dispersed in the polyamide 6 matrix on about 30 nm in diameter, which demonstrates that this method can effectively avoid agglomeration of the inorganic particles. The rheological results suggest that pure PA6 shows Newtonian behavior. However, the novel EPA6N exhibits a solid-like rheological behavior, which is due to the small size, large surface of silica particles and the stronger polyamide 6-silica chemical bond formed through the reactions of epoxy resins with end groups of PA6 molecular chains. The EPA6N also exhibits higher melt viscosity, storage modulus and loss modulus than those of pure PA6.

Keywords

polyamide 6 / nanocomposites / epoxy resins / rheological behavior / viscosity

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