Polymer Nanocomposites

In polymer processing, such as extrusion and injection molding, the rheological properties of polymeric materials, related to the microstructure of macromolecules, play a very important role. In filled polymer system, the extend of the dispersion, the shape and the orientation and/or arrangement of the dispersed particles add to the complexity of the rheology. In polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites, the nanometric size of the dispersed particles brings still an additional complexity due to the importance of the polymer-particle and particle-particle interactions. This work focuses on the rheology of the nano suspension of silicate layers in a viscoelastic polymer matrix. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is employed to model its linear and nonlinear rheological behavior.