Preparation and properties of organo-montmorillonite modified R-122 nanocomposite

An OMMT (organic montmorillonite) was prepared by ion exchanging between Na-montmorillonite and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and was applied to modify Dicyclopentadiene Dioxide Epoxy(R-122). FT-IR spectra showed that the organic molecules had intercalated into the layers of MMT successfully, X-ray diffraction illustrated that the spacing of layers of MMT increased from 1.43 nm to 3.85 nm. R-122 composite was prepared with this nano-organic montmorillonite. When the content of OMMT was 4.0% (wt%), the impact strenth of the composite reached to the highest(21.2 J/m), which is 92.7% higher than the pure R-122. Morphology of the fracture checked by SEM, reveals a depth depended distribution which generated more new surface, thus can absorb more impact energy. Differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) showed that the thermal stability of the composite had improved compared with the pure resin. And what's more, the improvement of toughness doesn't hurt the resin's heat resistance, it may provid a new way to prepare high performance R-122 composites.