Synthesis and Characterization of Epoxy Resin- Montmorillonite Nanocomposites Obtained by Frontal Polymerization ALBERTO MARIANI, 1 SIMONE BIDALI, 1 GIUSEPPE CARIA, 1 ORIETTA MONTICELLI, 2 SAVERIO RUSSO, 2 JOSE ´ MARI ´ A KENNY 3 1 Department of Chemistry and local INSTM Unit, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy 2 Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry and local INSTM Unit, University of Genova, 16146 Genova, Italy 3 Materials Science and Technology Center and local INSTM Unit, University of Perugia, 05100 Terni, Italy Received 30 November 2006; accepted 12 January 2007 DOI: 10.1002/pola.21987 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). ABSTRACT: Frontal polymerization, a method that allows to convert a monomer into a polymer exploiting the exothermicity of the self-same polymerization reaction, has been conveniently used for the easy and fast preparation of epoxy resin-montmoril- lonite nanocomposites. The obtained materials have shown characteristics similar or even better than those prepared by the conventional polymerization routes. The syn- thetic methods and the thorough characterization of the obtained nanocomposites are described. V V C 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2204–2211, 2007 Keywords: frontal polymerization; nanocomposites; synthesis; TEM; thermosets; X-ray INTRODUCTION Frontal Polymerization (FP) is a method that allows to convert a monomer into a polymer exploiting the exothermicity of the self-same po- lymerization reaction. If the heat dissipated is not excessive, the quantity of energy left over may be sufficient to induce the polymerization of the monomer layer close to the zone heated by the reaction. As a result, a hot propagating and self-sustaining front can be observed (Fig. 1). As it happens in many frontal reactions, FP runs are generally characterized by a constant velocity of the front (V f , Fig. 2). In Figure 3, a typical FP temperature profile is depicted with the definition of T max ; this is the maximum tem- perature experimented by the thermocouple junction corresponding to the front temperature. The first FP studies date back to the 70s when Chechilo and Enilokopyan frontally poly- merized methyl methacrylate under high pres- sure. 1,2 Since then, several other fundamental studies have been pursued in this field; in particular, they dealt with: macrokinetic and dynamic behaviors, 3–7 frontal copolymerization, 8 the preparation of thermochromic composites, 9 IPNs, 6 polymer-dispersed liquid crystal materi- als, 10 functionally gradient materials, 11–13 com- posites, 14 nanocomposites, 15,16 hydrogels, 17 the design and synthesis of suitable glycidyl ethers that can be frontally polymerized. 18 In recent years, our research group has embarked upon the study of the FP potentiality. We have studied new frontally polymerizable systems. 19 Namely, our research interests deal with polyurethanes, 20,21 polydicyclopentadiene, 22 Correspondence to: A. Mariani (E-mail: mariani@uniss.it) Journal of Polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol. 45, 2204–2211 (2007) V V C 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 2204