Studies on the characteristics of high performance polymer clay composites

Abstract

In this work, we prepared polybenzoxazine polymer in an in situ polymerization method. It is one of the green chemistry principles (not using solvent) and one step fabrication technique. In order to overcome the drawbacks of using polybenzoazine resins, direct conversion of the precursors and the additives heated to the optimized temperature produces the polymeric composites. Various types of additives used are organo modified MMT, activated carbon, and natural fibers. Thus formed polymer and their composites were characterized by various analytical techniques such as FTIR, XRD, and FESEM with EDAX. Thermal stability of the composites was characterized by TGA and DTGA, and the mechanical characteristics were characterized by Rockwell Hardness measurement. The corrosion protection ability of the obtained polybenzoxazine composites was evaluated by using a bare steel plate and the plate coated with a varnish containing powdered composites powder. Corrosion inhibition tendency of the specimen were evaluated through potentiodynamic polarization and EIS method. From the results, it is concluded that the composites obtained from various reinforcing agents such as clay, carbon, and fiber show an excellent thermal, mechanical, and corrosion resistant properties along with excellent high-performance characteristics. The composites prepared in this study can be used in multifunctional application since the composites display remarkable thermal stability, higher hardness and superior corrosion protection ability. newline