Nanoparticles’ restricted volume affects the phase behaviour of polymer/disc nanocomposites. The so-called bparameter is defined as half of the excluded volume between particles and is equal to half of the volume occupied by one particle when rotating in all directions. This report presents the calculation of b-parameter for particles of different geometric shapes: a rod, a disc (circular sheet), a parallelepipedic sheet, an equilateral-triangular sheet and a regular-hexagonal sheet, extending the calculation of the restricted volume of disc particles to others with different forms, in order to calculate composites phase diagrams. The comparison of nanodiscs with nanoclay indicates that further aggregation models are needed.

Keywords: Intercalation compound, Polymer nanocomposite, Orientation, Phase diagram, Nanoparticle, Nanosheet, Nanoindentation, Nanodispersion, Organophilic, Montmorillonite, Nanoclay, Nanofil® 919, Layered silicate, Phyllosilicate, Organically modified silicate, Organophilization