Transient Rheology of a Clay-Polymer Suspension During Accelearated Nanocomposite Formation

A novel exfoliation mechanism for clay/polymer suspensions reduces the energy that is required to release clay sheets from stacks (clay particles) and accelerates the formation of a nanocomposite network structure.  The clay is montmorillonite in which the natural counterions were replaced by alkane counter-ions. The polymer is an endfunctionalized  polybutadiene. Time-resolved rheometry on freshly mixed samples shows the evolving connectivity of the clay-polymer structure.  Sample preparation is simple and fully reproducible since no shearing or sonication is required to facilitate exfoliation. We propose an explanation for the novel exfoliation process and provide an experimental test of the hypothesized mechanism.