Preparation and characterization of poly (phenylene sulfide) nanocomposites with both silica and clay fillers

Poly (phenylene sulfide) (PPS)/silica (SiO₂)/organophilic montmorillonite OMMT(clay) nanocomposites are prepared and two kinds of nanofillers of different dimensions, the plate-like OMMT(clay) and globe-like SiO₂, are dispersed through their “filler–filler” interaction in melt processing. In PPS/SiO₂/clay system, strong filler–filler interaction is established by different responses to shear flow of inorganic clay and SiO₂, thus the well dispersion of nanofillers is achieved successfully. However, the OMMT platelets are prone to be entangled by PPS molecular chains in PPS/SiO₂/OMMT composites due to the extremely low interfacial tension between PPS and OMMT, which blocks the interaction between OMMT and SiO₂. The result reveals two key points in realizing well dispersion of nanofillers in polymer by establishing filler–filler interaction in processing, namely, the distinct responses to shear flow of nanofillers provide an important condition for filler–filler interaction, while the direct collision between each other is another key point to successfully realize this interaction.