Synthesis and Characterization of Methyl Methacrylate Modified Vinylester Resin-Clay Nanocomposites

Abstract

The hybridization of vinylester resin (VER) and organoclay has been studied aiming at enhancing the thermal and mechanical properties of VER. VER prepolymer was synthesized from the reaction of diglycidylether of bisphenol-A and acrylic acid. VER resin-clay nanocomposites were prepared by mixing different ratio of methylmethacrylate (MMA) as a reactive diluent and vinyl functional-montmorillonite with VER. The polymerization of VER in the presence of organoclay has been studied by DSC and IR. The morphology of the hybrids has been studied by XRD. The transparency of the hybrids in the form of films studied by UV-VIS spectra indicated that the transparency depends on the organoclay content. The inclusion of clay into VER led to enhance the hardness, however, with increasing the amount of reactive diluent, the surface hardness decreased. Softening point and TGA studies of the hybrids have also been evaluated.