Effect of solid state intercalation conditions in controlling the self-assembled nanostructured polycarbazole–montmorillonite nanocomposites synthesized by mechano-chemical and microwave-assisted techniques

The present preliminary investigation reports a comparative study of the rapid intercalation of polycarbazole (PCz) in montmorillonite (MMT) via mechano-chemical and microwave (MW) assisted reaction techniques in the solid state. The intercalation with both the techniques was carried out using loadings of carbazole in MMT in the ratio MMT:carbazole monomer (1:0.25 wt.% and 1:0.5 wt.%). Microwave-assisted intercalation produced discrete as well as self-assembled nanoparticles of uniform size as confirmed by TEM, while the mechano-chemical method resulted in randomly distributed irregular shaped spherical particles forming dense aggregates. Microwave-assisted (MW) intercalation thus proved to be a reliable, fast, as well as efficient technique for the production of self-assembled nanostructures via solid state intercalation. Although the mechanism of formation of self-assembled nanoparticles under MW irradiation is not entirely understood, factors responsible for the control of the particle size and its homogeneous distribution are: uniform heating at molecular level and precise temperature control.