Calculation and Prediction of the Thermal Distortion Temperature of Polyamide-6/Organoclay Nanocomposites

The thermal distortion temperature, which determines the upper temperature limit of thermal stability of polymer materials, is analyzed using polyamide-6/organoclay nanocomposites as an example. It is shown that an increase in this temperature is determined by the total content of close-packed regions of the nanocomposite–nanofiller and interfacial regions. It is determined that the degree of anisotropy of a nanofiller in a polymer matrix significantly affects the thermal stability of nanocomposites. The proposed theoretical model makes it possible to predict the thermal distortion temperature of the studied nanocomposites as a function of the nanofiller content and degree of its anisotropy with quite high accuracy.