Microstructure and rheological behavior of block copolymer/clay nanocomposites

Organic/Inorganic hybrid nanocomposites based on poly(styrene-butadiene-sty rene) copolymer (SBS) and clay are fabricated by melt intercalation. The de gree of intercalation is dependent on the surface properties of clay and SB S. The epoxized block in epoxized SBS acts as a strong attractive site with the clay surface, which yields the increased interlayer space in the layer ed silicates. It is also shown that the thermal stability of clay as well a s the surface properties is very important in fabricating the polymer/clay nanocomposites. The rheological behavior of the SBS/clay nanocomposites is quite different from that of SBS itself. Both storage moduli and complex vi scosity of the SBSI layered silicate nanocomposites increase and show non-t erminal flow behavior.