Structurally Enhanced Hydrogel Nanocomposites with Improved Swelling and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

In this work, structurally enhanced hydrogel nanocomposites based on 2-acrylamido-2 methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS)-acrylamide (AAM) copolymer with high hydrophilic group content were prepared by in-situ copolymerization by using different types of clay (montmorillonite, mica and halloysite). Nanocomposite hydrogels were characterized by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses and determination of swelling degrees of the samples. Mechanical properties of the samples were also investigated by determination of the compressive elastic modulus. It was also found that exfoliated or highly expanded intercalated nanocomposite structure was obtained and clay incorporation into the AMPS-AAM hydrogel structure improved its swelling capacity. The highest swelling capacity (1030 g H2O/g) was observed for the nanocomposite sample prepared with the montmorillonite amount of 5% (w). Furthermore, mechanical strength of the hydrogels against compression forces was significantly improved by the clay addition. It was found that the type of clay, in other word filler geometry, affected the compressive elastic modulus (E) of the samples. It was concluded that halloysite, which is considered to be a one dimensional (1D) nanotubular filler was less effective to enhance the compressive elastic modulus (E) of such materials compared with the montmorillonite and mica having two dimensional (2D) platelet or disk-like shapes at a particular amount of clay.