Melt rheology of organoclay and fumed silica nanocomposites

We finally report on the thixotropy and modulus recovery after a large deformation in steady and dynamic shear conditions. Following this, the nonlinear rheological properties of nanocomposite materials have been discussed. The discussion is particularly focused on the effect of flow history (transient shear experiments) on the orientation-disorientation of clay platelets. Actually, the linear and nonlinear rheological properties are consistent with a network structure of a weakly agglomerated tactoids. As far as exfoliated clay nanocomposites are concerned, the inter-particle interaction is the dominant effect in the nonlinearity effect.