Preparation of polyimide/LDH nanocomposites and characterization of their properties

Pre-exfoliated organic layered double hydroxides(LDHs) modified with N-Lauroyl-glutamate (LDH-LG) was prepared in the O/W type microemulsion. Then exfoliated polyimide(PI)/LDH nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization. The high resolution transmission electron microscope showed that the nanoscale organic LDH particles were homogeneously dispersed in the polymer matrix. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the addition of LDH-LG improved the crystallinity of PI. Mechanical testing showed that the mechanical properties of the PI/LDH nanocomposite films were significantly enhanced by nano-LDH sheets and 0.5%(wt) of LDH-LG led to improvement of the tensile strength by 32.5%.