<![CDATA[Thermal Stability of Clay's Galleries in Polypropylene - Clay (montmorillonite) Nanocomposites using Polypropylene-g-Maleic Anhydride as Compatibilizer. Superior properties of food packaging can be achieved using nanocompositetechnology. However, fabrication of this materials are complex and expensive. Long term objectives of this research isthe synthesis of low cost polypropylene clay nanocomposites (PPCN) via a short-cut method known as ‘cascadeengineering’. Cascade engineering principle in PPCN fabrication is performed by using compatibilizer (to enable themixing of PP and clay) masterbatch, and PPCN in one pot process using melt mixer. This paper present theexperimental results using small-angle x-ray diffraction (XRD) on the thermal stability of the PPCN. Results from theXRD analysis showed that the clay was intercalated, however no significant changes were observed as a result ofvariation in mixing time. XRD patterns of the annealed PPCN showed reduction of MMT’s gallery (deintercalation)These phenomenon was probably caused by insufficient bonding and lack of compatibility between PP-g-MA andMMT.Keywords: cascade engineering, polypropylene clay nanocomposite, PP-g-MA, thermal stability]]>
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