Preparation of Poly(ethylene‐octene) Elastomer/Clay/Wood Flour Nanocomposites by a Melting Method

Summary: The new nanocomposites consisting of metallocene poly(ethylene‐octene) (POE), silicate clay and wood flour (WF) were prepared by means of a melt blending method. In addition, maleic anhydride grafted poly(ethylene‐octene) (POE‐g‐MAH) was studied as an alternative to POE. The samples were characterized by XRD, FT‐IR spectroscopy, DSC, TGA, SEM, and mechanical testing. Based on the consideration of thermal and mechanical properties, it was found that the clay content of 11 wt.‐% was optimal for the preparation of POE‐g‐MAH/clay nanocomposites. The POE‐g‐MAH/clay/WF hybrid could obviously improve the mechanical properties of POE‐g‐MAH/WF hybrid since the former had the smaller WF phase size (being always less than 1.5 µm), the SiOC bond and the nanoscale dispersion of silicate layers in the polymer matrix. The biodegradation studies showed that the mass of hybrids reduced by about the content of WF. The new POE‐g‐MAH/clay/WF nanocomposites produced from our laboratory can provide a plateau tensile strength at break when the WF content was up to 50 wt.‐%. magnified image