Polymeric membranes were produced from nylon 6 nanocomposites and a clay using the immersion-precipitation technique. The clay was organically modified by using a quaternary ammonium salt, Dodigen. Nanocomposites were obtained from nylon 6 with untreated clay (MMT) and treated clay (OMMT). The nanocomposites were studied by XRD and TEM. The morphological structure consisted of an exfoliated and partially exfoliated clay layers in the polymeric matrix. The membranes were produced by phase inversion method and characterized by XRD and SEM. The X-ray diffraction of the membranes confirmed the results for the nanocomposites. The SEM image of the membrane top surface showed irregular pores. As for the membranes with the nanocomposites, a larger number of better distributed pores were observed, indicating that the presence of the clay altered the membrane morphology. The cross section SEM image showed an asymmetric morphology structure, comprising two layers, namely a skin with small and closed pores, and a porous layer with large, uniformly distributed pores.
Nylon 6; nanocomposites; membranes; inversion phase method
