Thermal expansion of clay polymer nanocomposites as a function of aspect ratio and filler content

Different amounts of a low (L/h = 100) and a high aspect ratio (L/h = 22,000) synthetic clay (hectorite) have been compounded into a polyetherimide matrix by solution casting. By applying these fillers with largely different aspect ratios we were able to validate the different and partially contradicting models found in the literature to predict coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of nanocomposites. A comparison with experimentally observed...