Ivy Union Publishing | http: //www.ivyunion.org September * 2014 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 Kausar A. American Journal of Polymer Science & Engineering 2014, 2:*-* Page 1 of 15 Investigation of Novel Poly(urethane-urea) and MMT Foams derived via In-situ Technique Ayesha Kausar Nanosciences and Catalysis Division, National Centre For Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan American Journal of Polymer Science & Engineering Research Article American Journal of Polymer Science & Engineering http://www.ivyunion.org/index.php/ajpse/index Vol 2, Article ID 201400487, 15 pages Keywords: Poly(urethane-urea); montmorillonite; foam; LOI; UL 94 Academic Editor: Taihong Shi, PhD, PhD, Sun Yat-sen University, China Received: June 23, 2014; Accepted: September 7; Published: September *, 2014 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Copyright: 2014 Kausar A. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. *Correspondence to: Ayesha Kausar, Nanosciences and Catalysis Division, National Centre For Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; Email: asheesgreat@yahoo.com Abstract Thermal and mechanical behavior and fire performance of novel series of flame-retardant high impact poly(urethane-urea) (PUU)/montmorillonite nanocomposites and foams were designed and studied by various means. Silicate layers of hydroxyl modified montmorillonite (H-MMT) was well exfoliated in PUU matrix due to in-situ reaction between the clay and poly(urethane-urea). The combination of PUU and montmorillonite modified with bis-2-hydroxyethyl ammonium as flame retardant enhanced the charring capacity and non-flammability of foams and also increased the thermal performance with nanofiller loading. FESEM illustrated increased cell density and reduced cell size in PUU/H-MMT 1-5 Foam (1-5 wt. % nanofiller) relative to pure PUU foam. Compression strength and modulus of PUU/H-MMT 1 Foam (1 wt. % nanofiller) was 30.1 MPa and 3 GPa respectively, which was increased to 36.7 MPa and 8 GPa in PUU/H-MMT 5 Foam (5 wt. % nanofiller). 10 % thermal decomposition temperature of PUU/H-MMT 1-5 Foams were in the range 488–519 °C. In PUU/H-MMT 5 Foam T g was increased to 157 °C relative to PUU/H-MMT 1 (T g 147 °C). LOI and UL 94 tests had shown improved non-flammability (V-0 rating) with H-MMT loading.