Preparation and Characterization of Some Hyperbranched Polyesteramides/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Different polyesteramides hyperbranched polymers (HPEA1-6)/montomorillonite clay (MMT) nanocomposites were prepared with three different loading contents of clay (4, 10, and 15？wt%). The obtained nanocomposites were characterized via XRD, thermal analyses, and TEM. Generally, intercalation behavior was observed. The hyperbranched polyesteramides (HPEA1-6) were originally prepared by the bulky reaction between maleic anhydride (MAn), succinic anhydride (ScAn), and phthalic anhydride (PhAn) with either diethanolamine (DEA) or diisopropanolamine (DiPA). The resulting hyperbranched polyesteramides (HPEA1-6) were characterized by GPC, IR, 1H-NMR, TGA, and DSC. 1. Introduction Recently, polymer/clay nanocomposites have been considered as rising area of research from both scientific and industrial perspectives where they result from the interaction between the organic polymer phase and the inorganic clay phase. Therefore, polymer/clay nanocomposites combine both the properties of inorganic phase such as rigidity, high stability, and the properties of organic phase such as flexibility, dielectric, ductility, and processability [1–4]. Layered silicates such as montmorillonite are the most versatile member of the nanofillers used in manufacturing polymer/clay nanocomposites. The nanoparticles improve the polymer performance over conventional fillers with a smaller loading content [5]. The advantages of nanocomposites include enhanced mechanical properties such as elastic modulus [6] and tensile strength [7, 8]. Additional enhancements are expected in coefficient of linear thermal expansion, heat distortion temperature, flammability resistance, ablation performance, gas barrier properties, and others [9–12]. Generally, polymer/clay nanocomposites have been widely used in many fields, such as automobile and tire industries, construction fields, food packaging, electrical fields, antimicrobial agents, and other potential applications [13–17]. Several polymers are involved in producing such nanocomposites as vinyl polymers [18, 19], condensation polymers [20, 21], polyolefins [22, 23], and others [24, 25]. Hyperbranched polymers have been lately used in such nanocomposites due to their brilliant physical and chemical properties to obtain nanocomposites with excellent properties that can be invested in different applications [26, 27]. Hyperbranched polymers belong to the dendritic polymers; however, they are prepared via several easy preparative methods in one-pot reaction which is considered as merit over the dendrimers themselves especially in the industry where