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Investigation Of Structure And Properties Of Novel Multi-Layer Clay Nanocomposite Films Produced Controllably By Continuous Chaotic Advection Blending, Chaitra Mahesha

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Polymer nanoclay composites have been studied extensively in the past decade due to the excellent combination of properties they can offer at low loadings of clay. Despite robust research, the potential enhancements that nanoclays are theoretically predicted to offer have not been achieved. Such potential improvements in mechanical and gas barrier properties are realized only when the internal structure of the nanocomposite is optimized in terms of arrangement and orientation of nanoclay within the matrix. The mixing-based approach and the accompanying complex flow fields of conventional processing techniques widely used to produce nanoclay composites are unable to control the internal …