| The present article seeks to characterize open-cell flexible interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) foams
with a polyurethane-polymethylmethacrylate (PU-PMMA) ratio of 75:25 comprising organoclay
nanoparticles. The effects of different nanoclay contents ranging from 0.3% to 1.5% (wt) in PU:PMMA
(75/25) IPNs were investigated on mechanical properties such as storage modulus, loss modulus, and
Tan delta. Thermal properties were also examined in a wide range of temperature using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), flow resistivity analyses determined that
the optimized content of nanoclay leads to highest air permeability. The scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) results showed semi-spherical micro-cell formed in the frame of foams using nanoclay below
1 mm in average diameter. The interaction between nanoclay and polymeric IPN chains observed in
dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) can be attributed to increases in the storage modulus in
the neighborhood of Tg. Moreover, increasing and optimizing the percentage of nanoclay in IPNs widened
the range of Tan d peaks. An IPN containing 1.2% wt of nanoclay corresponded with the highest storage
modulus and the widest peak of Tan d. TGA thermograms also confirmed that thermal stability is directly
proportional to the percentage of nanoclay in IPNs. The results revealed air permeability from IPN samples have been increased with increasing the amount of nanoclay and also, air permeability enhancement
leads to a reduction of sound waves reflection and an increase of sound waves absorption. The sound
absorption coefficient has been increased with the presence of the nanoclay.
The results showed that sound absorption experiments attributed the interaction between nanoclay
hydroxyl groups and urethane bonds of IPN to the higher sound absorption of IPNs. Furthermore, an
IPN with 1.2% wt of nanoclay showed the best mechanical properties and highest sound absorption over
the measured frequency ranges |