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Preparation and characterization of mechanically and thermally enhanced polyimide/reactive halloysite nanotubes nanocomposites

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Abstract

High modulus and thermal stability of polyimide (PI)/reactive halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization. The pristine HNTs were firstly handled with the tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and secondly grafted with the silane agent. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) approved that TEOS was beneficial for the silane agent to modify the HNTs. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the differences of the morphology between the reactive HNTs and pristine HNTs. PI/reactive HNTs nanocomposites exhibited lower moisture absorption than pure polyimide. The reactive HNTs reduced the transmittance of the nanocomposites. Significant improvements in the thermal stability and glass transition temperature (Tg) of PI/reactive HNTs nanocomposites were achieved by addition of only a small amount of reactive HNTs. It was noteworthy that both the tensile strength and Young’ modulus of PI/reactive HNTs nanocomposites were significantly enhanced. A 62.8 % increase in tensile strength and a 63.7 % increase in Young’ modulus of the nanocomposites with 3 wt.% of the reactive HNTs were achieved. Finally, the preparation mechanism to obtain PI/reactive HNTs nanocomposites was proposed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful for the supports of the “National Youth Natural Science Foundation of China” (No. 21406247) and Wuhai Tian-yu Chemical High-tech Co. Ltd. (China).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), No. 1 Bei-er-tiao, Zhong-guan-cun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China

    Shiwei Chen, Xuchen Lu, Tizhuang Wang & Zhimin Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Shiwei Chen

  3. United Research Center for Resource and Materials, Wuhai, 016000, People’s Republic of China

    Xuchen Lu

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  1. Shiwei Chen
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  2. Xuchen Lu
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  3. Tizhuang Wang
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Correspondence to Xuchen Lu.

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Chen, S., Lu, X., Wang, T. et al. Preparation and characterization of mechanically and thermally enhanced polyimide/reactive halloysite nanotubes nanocomposites. J Polym Res 22, 185 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-015-0806-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-015-0806-3

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