Comparative Study of the Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polyamide-66 Filled with Commercial and Nano-Mg(OH)2Particles

In the present work, polyamide-Mg(OH)2 nanocomposites were prepared via melt intercalation on a twin-screw extruder. Different particle sizes (24, 20, 11 nm) of Mg(OH)2 were synthesized by in-situ deposition technique and its shape and sizes was confirmed on transmission electron microscope (TEM). Nano-Mg(OH)2 was added from 1 to 4 wt% in the polyamide. Properties such as tensile strength, elongation at break, hardness, and flame retardency were studied. These results were then compared with commercial Mg(OH)2-filled composites. There was propounding effect to be observed on properties of polyamide nanocomposites due to uniform dispersion of nano-Mg(OH)2 and commercial Mg(OH)2. Moreover, thermal property like thermal degradation was studied on TGA. Extent of dispersion of nano-Mg(OH)2 was studied along with microcracks generated during tensile testing using AFM. It was found that nano-Mg(OH)2 is thermally more stable compared to that of commercial Mg(OH)2. Besides that, Tg and M.T. are studied on DSC.