Nanoincorporation of layered double hydroxides into a miscible blend system of cellulose acetate with poly(acryloyl morpholine)

Blend miscibility of cellulose acetate (CA) with poly(acryloyl morpholine) (PACMO) was examined by thermal transition measurements and solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, in which CA materials of acetyl DS = 1.80–2.95 were used. All the blends prepared gave a single Tg and formed an amorphous monophase homogeneous within a distance of ∼2.0 nm. An Al/Mg-based, layered double hydroxide (LDH) was modified with different ionic oligomers, and an attempt was made to incorporate the respective organophilic LDHs (3–3.5 wt%) into blend films of the miscible PACMO/CA pair, via bulk polymerization of an ACMO monomer/organo-LDH mixture and then blending CA with the polymer/inorganic hybrid precursor. Particularly, 12-hydroxystearic acid-modified LDH was well exfoliated and ultimately dispersed in the PACMO/CA matrix on a scale of less than a few tens of nanometers in thickness. This gave rise to a successful reinforcement effect leading to the improvement in thermo-mechanical property of the polymer blends.