Polypropylene（PP）/MgAl layered double hydroxide（MgAl LDH） nanocomposites were synthesized by refluxing PP and dodecyl sulfate-intercalated MgAI LDH[MgAI（DS）] in non-polar xylene. Their structure, thermal and crystallization properties were studied via X-ray diffraction（XRD）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, thermogravimetric analysis（TGA）, differential scanning calorimetry（DSC）, and polarized light microscopy（PLM）. The nanoscaled dispersion of MgAI（DS） nanolayeres in the PP matrix was verified by the disappearance of the d（003） XRD diffraction peak of MgAI（DS） and observation of TEM image. The DSC data show that the SDS/LDH inorganic components negatively affect the crystallization properties of PP and decrease the size of PP sphcrulites because the inorganic components act as additional nuclei. The PP/MgA1 LDH nanocomposites have a faster charring progress in a temperature range of 250--430 ℃ and a better thermal stability above 320℃ than pure PP.
The interlayer surface of MgAl layered double hydroxide （MgAl-LDH） was modified by exchanging about half of the interlayer nitrate anions by dodecyl sulfate anions （DS） to get MgAl（H-DS） LDH, and then the MgAl（H-DS） was melt intercalated by LLDPE to get the LLDPE/MgAl-LDH exfoliation nanocomposites. The samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared （PTIR） spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, ion chromatography, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, and thermogravimetry analysis （TGA）. The nanoscale dispersion of MgAl-LDH layers in the LLDPE matrix was verified by the disappearance of （001） XRD reflection of the modified MgAl-LDH and by the TEM observation. The TGA profiles of LLDPE/MgAl-LDH nanocomposites show a faster charring process between 210 and 370 ℃ and a higher thermal stability above 370 ℃than LLDPE. The decomposition temperature of the nanocomposites with 10 wt% MgAl（H-DS） can be 42 ℃ higher than that of LLDPE at 40% weight loss.
