Particulate Fillers in Thermoplastics

The characteristics of particulate filled thermoplastics are determined by four factors: component properties, composition, structure and interfacial interactions. The most important filler characteristics are particle size, size distribution, specific surface area and particle shape, while the main matrix property is stiffness. Segregation, aggregation and the orientation of anisotropic particles determine structure. Interfacial interactions lead to the formation of a stiff interphase considerably influencing properties. Interactions are changed by surface modification, which must be always system specific and selected according to its goal. Under the effect of external load inhomogeneous stress distribution develops around heterogeneities, which initiate local micromechanical deformation processes determining the macroscopic properties of the composites

Heterostructured fluorohectorite clay as an electrochemical sensor for the detection of 2,4-dichlorophenol and the herbicide 2,4-D

WOS: 000175028700045A mixed-ion, amphiphilic fluorohectorite heterostructure, wherein the galleries are regularly interstratified by hydrophilic inorganic ions (Na+) and lipophilic onium. ions, is shown to be an efficient electrochemical sensor for the specific determination of the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and the pollutant 2,4-dicholorophenol (2,4-DCP) when incorporated at the 5 wt % level into a carbon paste electrode CPE). The clay-modified electrode was substantially less sentive to herbicides that lack the aromatic hydroxyl groups needed for oxidation to a quinone (e.g., Illoxan and Furore). Conventional homoionic organoclays with all galleries exclusively occupied by an onium ion surfactant exhibited a lower electrochemical response to 2,4-D and 2,4-DCP oxidation when incorporated into a CPE. Similarly, low current responses were observed for a CPE modified with a homostructured mixed-ion montmorillonite clay with both inorganic ions and organic onium ions cooccuping each clay gallery. The electrochemical response observed for the mixed-ion fluorohectorite heterostructure was attributed to the ability of this unique clay intercalate to achieve electrical neutrality upon oxidation of the dichlorophenoxy moiety through the facile ejection of sodium ions from the segregated inorganic galleries