Abstract: Camontmorillonite was directly modified with hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide. The interlamellar spacing of the organophilic montmorillonite (OMMT), corresponding to the (001) plane peak reached 2.21 nm. The reaction process of the curing system (E51/BADK/MMT) was studied by nonisothermal DSC and carefully analyzed. Based on the Kissinger method, the apparent activation energy (ΔE) was calculated to be 41.03 kJ/mol. The reaction order(n=0.85) was calculated according to Crane theory. The curing reaction conditions with BADK as the curing reagent were found. At last, the thermal properties of epoxy resin/MMT nanocomposites were studied by nonisothermal DSC. The experimental data indicate that Tg’s of nanocomposites are higher.

Key words: Camontmorillonite(MMT), epoxy resin(E51), 4,4′ diaminodiphenylether diphenylketone (BADK), XRD, curing reaction kinetic, nanocomposite