Room temperature spontaneous exfoliation of organo-clay in liquid polybutadiene: Effect of polymer end-groups and the alkyl tail number of organic modifier

Disorderly exfoliated telechelic liquid polybutadiene/organo-clay nanocomposite gel was, for the first time, successfully prepared at room temperature of 26 °C by simply compounding of carboxyl-terminated polybutadiene (CTPB) with organo-clay containing surfactant modifier with two alkyl tails. The dispersion behavior of organo-clay in liquid polybutadiene/organo-clay nanocomposite gels were systematically investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), rheology and compatibility experiments, focusing on the influence of the functional end-groups of the liquid rubber and the alkyl tails number of the organic modifier on the clay exfoliation. A unique liquid-like reversible rheological behavior was observed for CTPB/exfoliated clay nanocomposite gels with organic modifier having two alkyl tails, which is totally different with that of other samples (HTPB/C18-clay, HTPB/D18-clay and CTPB/C18-clay). And it is noteworthy that CTPB exhibits a higher level of dispersion with an organo-clay with two alkyl tailed surfactant than that with one alkyl tail.