Generating Triaxial Reinforced Epoxy/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites with Uniaxial Magnetic Fields

The next step forward, transforming polymer nanocomposites from filled-polymer replacements to designed and engineered materials, necessitates the development of techniques to transform the random or ill-defined nanoscale morphologies into compositionally and spatially engineered hierarchal structures, paralleling that which underpins conventional continuous-fiber-reinforced composites. By exploiting an orthogonal magnetic susceptibility of montmorillonites (MMTs) from different deposits, a three-dimensional morphology composed of orthogonal alignment of aluminosilicate layers is generated from a mixture of montmorillonites and a uniaxial external magnetic field. Depending on the source, MMTs exhibit remnant magnetization arising from antiferro- and ferrimagnetic impurities and align with layers parallel or perpendicular to the field. Within a few minutes, application of static magnetic fields (1.2 or 11.7 T) induces stable alignment of organically modified MMT within an epoxy resin at room temperature. S...