Abstract

To improve the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), montmorillonite (MMT) was added in the synthesis of PVAc in conventional lab conditions. The final product was studied mainly by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), static tensile, and the rheology was also investigated by the power-law function equation and the Cross-Williamson model viscous equation. The exfoliated nano-composite of PVAc-MMT was obtained. Linear macromolecular chains of PVAc were formed in MMT layers. MMT was exfoliated into layers or sheets of nano-particles, and randomly dispersed in PVAc matrix. The particle diameter of MMT ranged from 50 to 100 nm, while PVAc’s ranged from 250 to 500 nm, the smaller MMT particles were adsorbed around the larger PVAc particles to form the “Strawberry” structure. In addition, PVAc and PVAc-MMT were pseudo-plastic Non-Newtonian fluids, they all possessed the normal stress effect (or Weissenberg effect), that was the pole-climbing phenomenon.

Key words: Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), montmorillonite (MMT), chemical structure, dispersion, particles, rheology, static tensile.