Distribution of clay particles in the spherulitic texture of poly(L-lactide)/organo-modified montmorillonite hybrids

The distribution of clay particles in the spherulitic texture of poly(L-lactide)/clay hybrids crystallized isothermally at 140degreesC has been investigated by use of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis. After crystallization of the hybrids, the clay particles were found to distribute with almost constant concentration along the radial direction of the spherulites, i.e., they are still kept in stacked state inside the spherulites without any segregation during crystallization. The concentration distribution of the clay particles showed that these particles were incorporated into the spherulitic texture of the crystallized hybrids.