Monitoring Clay Exfoliation During Polymer/Clay Compounding Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy.
Monitoring Clay Exfoliation During Polymer/Clay
Compounding Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy.
(3881 K)
Bur, A. J.; Roth, S. C.; Start, P. R.; Lee, Y. H.;
Maupin, P. H.
Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and
Control, Vol. 29, No. 5, 403-416, December 2007.
Keywords:
clay; spectroscopy; fluorescence; nylon; nylon 11;
mixing; experiments
Abstract:
A fluorescent probe molecule, Nile blue perchlorate, was
used to monitor the compounding of nylon 11 with clay
filler. Prior to compounding, Nile blue was incorporated
into the gallery region between silicate layers of the
clay by an ion-exchange process. While residing in the
gallery, fluorescence from Nile blue was quenched
because of fluorescence resorption in a high dye
concentration environment. However, when clay is
compounded with the nylon, clay exfoliation allowed the
dye to escape the gallery region and to become dispersed
in the resin matrix. During batch mixing, we observed
that fluorescence increased with time indicating that
dye molecules were migrating from the gallery.
Experiments carried out using a twin-screw extruder to
compound resin and clay showed that twin-screw
compounding was much more efficient in producing clay
exfoliation than was the batch mixer.
