Effects of organic modification of montmorillonite on the performance of starch-based nanocomposite films

AbstractObjective jective of this article is to study the effects of six quaternary ammonium salts (QASs) with various chain lengths and head groups on the physico-chemical properties of organically modified montmorillonites (OMts) and their starch nanocomposite films. s diffraction，FT-IR spectroscopy and TGA analysis of the OMts were performed. Mechanical properties, water vapor permeability (WVP) and glass transition temperature (Tg) of the nanocomposite films were determined. s ect intercalation structure was formed between the QASs and the natural montmorillonite. The QASs with high molecular weight were beneficial to increasing the d-spacing and loaded more mass in the interlayer space. The highest and lowest d-spacing were 3.56 nm for D1821Mt and 1.81 nm for 1231Mt, respectively. With the increase in the molecular size of the QASs, the starch/OMt composite films exhibited greater tensile strength (TS, 6.16 MPa), lower water vapor permeability (WVP, 1.80 × 10−10 g·m / m2·s·Pa), lower glass transition temperature (Tg, 17.1 °C) and better heat-sealing performance. sions Ss with large molecular size were more suitable for the production of starch/OMt nanocomposite films.