Uniaxial deformation of nylon 6-clay nanocomposites by in-situ synchrotron X-ray measurements

An in-situ uniaxial deformation study of nylon 6-clay hybrid (NCH) nanocomposites was carried out using simultaneous wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques with synchrotron radiation. This nanocomposite system exhibited the partial exfoliated clay morphology. The WAXD patterns along the through-and edge-views from the as-pressed film samples indicated that both clay platelets and nylon 6 crystallites were parallel to the film plane but oriented randomly in the plane. During uniaxial deformation, the orientation of the molecular axis in the crystals increased with strain but decreased with the clay content. This behavior could be attributed to the rotation of clay platelets during deformation, which hindered the orientation of nylon 6 crystals. The corresponding tensile mechanical properties indicated that the elongation at break decreased and the tensile modulus and strength increased with the clay concentration, which has been observed before.