Application of Taguchi approach in describing the mechanical properties and thermal decomposition behavior of poly(vinyl chloride)/clay nanocomposites: Highlighting the Role of organic modifier

Abstract

Mechanical and thermal properties of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/nanoclay (NC) composites prepared via meltblending in a single-screw extruder were investigated. The effects of NC type, NC content, and K-value of PVC were evaluated by using L9 orthogonal array of the Taguchi approach. The most influential variables and significance of interactive effects were examined for the highest values of Young's modulus and hardness. Scanning electron micrographs and X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the formation of exfoliated/intercalated structures. Although the K-value has a minor individual effect on mechanical characteristics, the interaction of the K-value with NC type and NC content is significant. The composites were also characterized and tested by using analysis by thermal gravimetry, differential thermogravimetry, and differential scanning calorimetry methods. The results of the thermal studies indicated that decomposition of the organic modifier of NCs has a catalytic effect on the dehydrochlorination of PVC. This finding justifies the rather low mechanical properties of PVC/ organoclay nanocomposites. Fourier-transform infrared spectra of the samples were indicative of accelerated degradation reactions, which provided support for above observations.

An investigation on the role of GMA grafting degree on the efficiency of PET/PP-g-GMA reactive blending: morphology and mechanical properties

“…From this perspective, thermoplastics polymers have widely been modified with GMA via melt free-radical grafting [28][29][30]. Awkwardly, however, the conversion of GMA grafting reaction on PP backbone was not sufficient even with excessive amount of peroxide in the system [31]. It was found that introduction of styrene, as comonomer, enhances grafting yield, particularly at equimolar concentration with reactive monomer [32][33][34].…”

Triple‐faced polypropylene: Fire retardant, thermally stable, and antioxidative

“…The lifetime of a polymer is often related to its resistance against oxidative decomposition . The oxidation can take place during melt processing of polymer or even by aging, leading to the deterioration of properties of polymers.…”

Controlled grafting of vinylic monomers on polyolefins: a robust mathematical modeling approach

“…[ 20,24,25 ] Studies reveal that, even in the presence of an excess amount of peroxide, the conversion of GMA grafting reaction on PP does not exceed 10%. [ 26 ] Such low grafting level suggests that the reactivity of GMA could be deteriorated during free-radical grafting. The grafting efficiency is controlled by many factors, among which is the time of melt mixing.…”

“…Thus, to uncover the contribution of aforementioned competitive reactions to increment of mixing torque, we need an advanced tool with the ability of learning nonlinear dynamic behavior of process and generalizing the learned pattern to design several other grafting and cross-linking reactions. We have successfully applied Taguchi [ 26,30–32 ] and response surface methodologies (RSM) [ 33–36 ] to determine the individual and interactive effects of changing variables when confronting such critical situations. These techniques work on the basis of fitting first- and second-order interpolating functions and cannot solely predict peculiar trends due to the lack of ability of learning the behavior of the process.…”