Preparation of Nylon 6/ Clay Nanocomposites by Reactive Extrusion

As the preliminary works for the preparation of exfoliated nanocomposites by reactive extrusion (REX) the modified anionic polymerization proceeded in a flask using an $\varepsilon$-caprolactam, catalyst, initiator, and clay. Polymerization methods were classified with a variation of the clay adding time. Intercalations mechanism of clay layers was investigated by measuring the WAXD peaks of clay with polymerization. In the preparation of nanocomposites, the molecular weight of nylon 6 was affected by the clay content. From the mechanical property measurement, improved properties were obtained in comparison to the neat nylon 6, and these properties were also affected by the molecular weight.