Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.35, No.11, 2289-2294, 1997
Synthesis and Properties of Polyimide-Clay Hybrid Films
Polyimide-clay hybrid films with four different sizes of clay minerals have been synthesized to investigate the effect of the size of clay minerals to the properties of the hybrids. Hectrite, saponite, montmorillonite, and synthetic mica were used as clay minerals. Those clays consist of stacked silicate sheets about 460 Angstrom (hectrite), 1650 Angstrom (saponite), 2180 Angstrom (montmorillonite), and 12300 Angstrom (synthetic mica) in length, 10 Angstrom in thickness. The longer the length of clay mineral was, the more effectively properties of polyimide were improved. In the case of polyimide-mica hybrid, only 2 wt % addition of synthetic mica brought permeability coefficients of water vapor to value less than one-tenth of that of ordinary unfilled polyimide, and thermal expansion coefficient was lowered at the level of 60% of the original one.
Keywords:MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES