Orientation and the extent of exfoliation of clay on scratch damage in polyamide 6 nanocomposites

The major objectives of this work are to understand the effects of organoclay, its extent of exfoliation and orientation, and indenter geometry on the scratch characteristics of polyamide 6/organoclay nanocomposites. Two different organically treated clays are used for this purpose and their structural parameters in a polyamide 6 matrix quantified. It is shown that, while the material properties are important for scratching resistance, they are not the only determinants of the scratch performance of materials. Further, despite proving beneficial to scratch resistance, in terms of residual depth, the presence (and exfoliation) of organoclay promotes the formation of brittle cracks during scratching. But with no organoclay layers, plastic flow controls the scratch damage in neat polyamide 6 with large residual depths. Factors such as orientation of clay layers and variations of indenter tip geometry also exert dominant effects on scratch penetration resistance and damage. Additionally, significant plastic flow and rotation of organoclay layers from the original configuration are observed underneath the sliding indenter.