An Improved Model for Estimation of Mechanical Properties of Polymer-Clay Nano-Composites

Polymer-clay nanocomposites are more popular in many industries and applications due to improved mechanical and gas barrier properties over pure polymers and classical polymer-based composites. The mechanism by which clay platelets, with thicknesses in the nanometer range, as opposed to the hundred-nanometer range in the other two dimensions, introduce the mechanical and other properties improvement can be attributed to their high efficiency in creating discontinuities to flows through the bulk matrix polymer material. However, the extent of this improvement depends on the success of separation or achieving full exfoliation of the clay platelets through the bulk matrix. Since such full exfoliation is not achievable experimentally, the aspect ratio of the filler particles is not a simple value that mathematical models employ to describe mechanical properties. In this work, a modification is proposed to improve such models by using relationships utilizing different concentrations of varying filler platelets thicknesses. The improvements in elastic tensile modulus are discussed with consideration of the effect of clay platelet inclusions geometry as depicted through the proposed modification to considered models to capture the effect of nano-platelets on the properties of the composite.