Preparation of poly(methyl methacrylate)/clay nanocomposites by microwaveassisted in-situ radical polymerization

The PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate)/clay nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ radical polymerizations with different clay contents (3 and 7 wt%) using microwave heating. The nanostructure, optical, and thermal properties of the synthesized PMMA/clay nanocomposites were measured by XRD, TEM, AFM, UV-vis, and TGA. It was found that the intercalated- or exfoliated structure of PMMA/clay nanocomposites was strongly dependent on the content of clay. Thus, the imposition of microwave-assisted polymerization facilitated a delamination process of layered silicates to achieve exfoliation state of interlayer distance. The PMMA/3 wt% C10A nanocomposite with well-dispersed and exfoliated clay nano-layers showed the good optical transparency similar to pure PMMA in this study. The thermal decomposition rates of the PMMA/clay nanocomposites become to be lower compared to that of the pure PMMA, indicating the intercalated- or exfoliated inorganic silicate has high thermal stability. A possible reason is that the thermally segmental motion of PMMA polymer into inorganic silicate interlayer spacing has increased the thermal stability of the PMMA/clay nanocomposites.