Preparation, microstructure, mechanical, and thermal properties of in situ polymerized polyimide/organically modified sericite mica composites

In this work, sericite mica was initially modified with a multi‐step procedure and the novel composites of polyimide (PI) with the organophilic sericite mica were subsequently synthesized via in situ polymerization technique. XRD patterns revealed d ₀₀₂ ‐spacing of clay was expanded from 0.99 to 2.77 nm. TEM photographs indicated majority of the organoclay exhibited an exfoliated morphology structure in composites with 5 wt% filler loading. Several critical properties of composites such as thermal stability, mechanical property, and storage modulus were tremendously enhanced with the increasing organoclay loading. Especially, the glass transition temperature of composites with 7 wt% organoclay addition revealed a 72°C increment compared with pristine PI, indicating greater improvement than the reported literature values. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:2243–2251, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers