Effect of solid state intercalation conditions in controlling the self-assembled nanostructured polycarbazole-montmorillonite nanocomposites synthesized by mechano-chemical and microwave-assisted techniques

摘要

The present preliminary investigation reports a comparative study of the rapid intercalation of polycarbazole (PCz) in montmorillonite (MMT) via mechano-chemical and microwave (MW) assisted reaction techniques in the solid state. The intercalation with both the techniques was carried out using loadings of carbazole in MMT in the ratio MMTxarbazole monomer (1:0.25 wt.% and 1:0.5 wt.%). Microwave-assisted intercalation produced discrete as well as self-assembled nanoparticles of uniform size as confirmed by TEM, while the mechano-chemical method resulted in randomly distributed irregular shaped spherical particles forming dense aggregates. Microwave-assisted (MW) intercalation thus proved to be a reliable, fast, as well as efficient technique for the production of self-assembled nanostructures via solid state intercalation. Although the mechanism of formation of self-assembled nanoparticles under MW irradiation is not entirely understood, factors responsible for the control of the particle size and its homogeneous distribution are: uniform heating at molecular level and precise temperature control.