RHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF NANOCOMPOSITES OBTAINED FROM ETHYLENE VINYL ACETATE (EVA) COPOLYMERORGANOCLAY

Abstract

In this study, ethylene-vinyl acetat copolymer (EVA 40W; containing 40% wt. vinyl acetate) wereblended with an organoclay (Nanocor I 44PT) with the weight ratios of 0, 1, 3, 6 and 8% by means of asingle-screw extruder with a transparent barrel in order to obtain nano-composites. The rheologicalproperties of nanocomposites obtained with the addition of organoclay to polymer matrix phase werestudied systematically. The nanocomposites produced by this study exhibited different rheologicalproperties. The addition of organoclay within the polymer matrix increased the strength of thenanocomposite structure. Also, it was seen that the storage modulus (G´ ) and the loss modulus (G ) atlow frequencies increased as the amount of organoclay increased in the polymer matrix phase. Themixing process of organoclay and polymer matrix phase was monitored visually since the barrel of thesingle-screw extruder was made of transparent glass. It was monitored and calculated from visualinspections that the residence time decreased due to the increase of the organoclay amount. As a result,it was found that the organoclay acted as a lubricant for the EVA copolymer.