We have studied the melt intercalation of polyethylene oxide (PEO) into sodium montrmorillonite (Na(+)-MMT), a layered silicate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments on polymer/silicate composite samples demonstrated that the intercalation of polymer chains lead to increase in the spacing between silicate layers. But the molecular weight and amounts of PEO have no effect on the d-spacing values between silicate layers. As the intercalation reaction proceed, in the study of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), MORE PEO chains were intercalated and area of the endotherm correspondign to the crystalline PEO was reduced. In this study, the PEO chaing conformations which were intercalated into Na(+)-MMT were the helical structures. From the study of XRD and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we found that the 10-13 multilayer silicates were dispersed in PEO matrix.

Polyethylene oxide (PEO)를 용융삽입법 (melt intercalation)으로 sodium montmorillote (Na⁺+ -MMT에 삽입된 P대의 배열형태는 나선형 형태임을 확인하였으며, XRD와 투과전자현미경 (TEM)으로 연구한 결과 실리케이트는 10-13겹으로 뭉쳐서 PEO의 매트릭스에 분산되어 있음을 확인하였다.

Keywords: sodium montmorillonite; polyethylene oxide; intercalation; composite; nanocomposite