Abstract
The macroscopic structure changes and the fine structure formation on uniaxial drawing of nylon 6 (N6) and nylon 6/clay hybrid nanocomposite films containing 2 and 5 wt% clay (NCH2, NCH5) were investigated by determining the Poisson's ratio, spontaneous shrinkage and density, and wide angle X-ray diffraction. The films were produced by rapid quenching in ice-water (QU-) and controlled cooling using water-circulation (SC-), and drawn in a silicon oil bath at 80-18$0^{\circ}C$ to draw ratio 3.5 and annealed at 18$0^{\circ}C$. The results are as follows: (1) Poisson's ratios ($\mu$$_{W}$, $\mu$$_{T}$) of width and thickness show tremendous gap between N6 and NCH at all draw temperatures, furthermore the $\mu$$_{T}$ of QU- NCH films decreased with increasing draw temperature and clay content while the $\mu$$_{T}$ and $\mu$$_{W}$ of SC-films were nearly unchanged. (2) The spontaneous shrinkage (%) after conditioning for 1 week decreased with increasing draw temperature in both QU- and SC-films, and also decreased as the clay content increased a fixed draw temperature. (3) The N6 matrix density increased with increasing draw temperature, but decreased with increase in clay content. (4) The Qu-films did not show any difference in the through and edge diffraction patterns, while the SC-films showed an anisotropic crystalline structure.cture.ure.
