Phase behavior of modified montmorillonite– poly(ε-caprolactone) nanocomposites

The thermal behavior and overall isothermal crystallization kinetics of a series of organophilic modified montmorillonite–poly(ε-caprolactone) nanocomposites were investigated. In general, the thermal behavior was influenced more by the type of dispersion than by the clay content. For nanocomposites in which silicate platelets were predominantly dispersed in the polymer matrix to give exfoliated structures, the thermal properties were improved with respect to those of neat poly(ε-caprolactone), whereas in those cases in which simply intercalated structures were attained, the thermal properties regularly decayed as the clay content increased. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 1321–1332, 2004