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| Volume 2, Issue 04 - 2006 |
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| 3 |
DENDRIMER-BASED NANOCOMPOSITES |
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| Pages 127-133 |
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| JENNY ALONGI1,2, ORIETTA MONTICELLI1*, SAVERIO RUSSO1, GIOVANNI CAMINO2 |
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1 Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Universita di Genova and INSTM NIPLAB Centre, via Dodecaneso, 31, 16146 Genova, Italy
2 Centro di Cultura per l'Ingegneria delle Materie Plastiche, Politecnico di Torino, V.le Teresa Michel 5, 15100 Alessandria, Italy
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| Received 20 December 2006; accepted 27 February 2007 |
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| Several PAMAM®-type dendrimers, characterized by different end groups (-OH, -NH2, -COOH) and dimensions (generations) have been intercalated into montmorillonite (MMT) layers, by using a solvent, i.e. water, in which the polymers were soluble and the silicate layers swellable. In principle, the replacement of the solvent molecules by dendrimers inside the interlayers of the silicate would promote the intercalated structure formation. Clay/PAMAM® systems have been characterized in detail by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wide angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The final characteristics of the prepared composites turned out to be mainly influenced by the size of the used dendrimers. Indeed, while low generation PAMAMs® (until the 5th generation) form ordered intercalated nanocomposites characterized by the presence of flocculated structures, bigger dendrimers promote the formation of disordered intercalated nanocomposites. TGA analysis has evidenced that the polymer intercalated into the silicalite layers is characterized by a relevant protection in terms of thermal degradation by the clay. The additional possibility to make the clay organophilic by ion exchange of pristine alkali cations with PAMAM®-NH2 dendrimer has been verified. |
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