Organophilization of mica muscovite for preparation of polymer nanocomposites

In the present study, the natural clay mica muscovite was organophilizated using cation exchange reaction with lithium salt and subsequently with quaternary ammonium salt in order to promote increased basal spacing of their crystal planes and rise of compatibility with polymeric materials. The increase in the interlayer distance of mica muscovite enables the formation of polymer nanocomposites with high thermal and mechanical properties. The results showed that it was necessary to perform a series of treatments using the lithium salt to allow increasing of the interplanar distance of mica d (001) from 9.90 Å to 11.94 Å. Only after the subsequent treatment with a solution of hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide salt it was noticed the appearance of a new reflection in the X-ray diffractogram at smaller diffraction angles and the one typical of mica disappeared. This behavior indicates the lithium ion exchange to the ammonium salt while the interplanar distance was increased from 11.94 Å to 18.56 Å