Morphological structures of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/montmorillonite nanocomposites

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blen- ding a kind of organically modified montmorillonite with PVDF. The morphological structures of the nanocomposites were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The re- sults indicate that organically modified montmorillonites are in the form of intercalation, exfoliation, and fragments in the PVDF matrix. For the composites, the (001) peak position of MMT was found to shift to a lower angle in XRD patterns, and some MMT fragments could be observed under TEM. MMT loading was favorable to producing the piezoelectric β phase in the PVDF matrix and caused internal stress in α crystals. At the same time, the crystallinity and spherulite size of PVDF decreased with the MMT content. MMT induced β phase is stable even at high temperatures (160℃). For these changes in morphological structures, some possible explanations were proposed based on the experimental re- sults.