Optical transparency in a polymer blend induced by clay nanofillers

Abstract

The effect of added nanoclays to the morphological characteristics and the macroscopic properties in a blend of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is examined in this study. It is shown that strong interactions between the surfactant used for clay modification and the binary matrix can effectively control the spatial organization of the suspended polymer droplets. It is also shown that the emulsifying efficiency of nanoclays to the polymer blend has a critical effect on the macroscopic properties of the nanocomposites. In this study, we present a unique case in which the incorporation of a small amount of organically modified nanoclay induces a dramatic transformation from an opaque to a transparent system.