Structure and Dynamics of the Exfoliation of Layered Nanosilicates in 'Liquid Rubber'

粘土蒙脱土（MMT）是一种常用的化合物，用于医疗应用和工业生产的改进高分子材料（复合材料）。全球年产量以百万吨计。粘土是由一堆堆薄薄的硅酸铝组成的。通过在聚合物基体中均匀分布这些薄片，增强的机械性能可以存档。将MMT与“液体橡胶”（低分子末端功能化聚丁二烯）混合，导致快速凝胶化和随后的层叠分层。虽然这一过程中的结构尚不清楚，但在整个分层过程中，模量和特征松弛时间的乘积保持不变，这表明了粘度的尺寸。据作者所知，这种独特的行为没有在其他材料中观察到，可能表明一种潜在的新材料。有机改性的MMT和laponite（作为一个模型系统）将通过散射测量（静态和动态光散射，x射线和中子散射）进行研究，并辅以流变学方法来检查系统。在中等粘土负荷下发现最佳性能。了解结构和剥离机理是提高复合材料中MMT含量的基础，同时又不损失复合材料的材料性能。

The clay montmorillonite (MMT) is a frequently used compound for medical applications and industrial production of improved polymeric materials (composite materials). Global production ranges in mega-tons per year. The clay consists of stacks of thin aluminium silicates. By evenly distributing these sheets within the polymer matrix, enhanced mechanical properties can be archived. Mixing of MMT with "liquid rubber", low molecular end-functionalized poly(butadiene), results in a fast gelation and a subsequent delamination of the stacks. Whereas the structure during this process is not known yet, the product of the modulus and the characteristic relaxation time, which shows the dimension of a viscosity, stays constant during this whole delamination process. To the knowledge of the author, this unique behaviour was not observed for other materials and may indicate a potentially new class of materials. Organically modified MMT and laponite (as a model system) will be investigated by scattering measurements (static and dynamic light scattering, X-ray and neutron scattering) and complemented by rheological methods in order to examine the system. Optimum properties are found at intermediate clay loadings. Understanding of structure and exfoliation mechanism is the basis for increasing the MMT content in composites to higher values without the loss of the improved material properties of the composite.