Effect of Nanoclay on the Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Wood Polymer Nanocomposite

Abstract

Polypropylene/wood flour composites with different nanoclay and maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MA) contents were fabricated by melt compounding and then by injection molding. The mechanical properties, such as flexural modulus, tensile modulus, elongation at break, and impact strength, were evaluated. Results indicated that the flexural modulus, tensile modulus, and elongation at break increases with increase of nanoclay up to 3 phc at the same concentration of PP-g-MA, and then decreases. However, the impact strength of the composites decreases with increased nanoclay loading. Also, the effect of compatibilzer was positive in terms of enhancing the mechanical properties of the composites. The morphology of the nanocomposites has been examined by using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Morphological findings revealed that intercalation form, the sample with 3 phc concentration of clay, which implies the formation of the intercalation morphology and better dispersion than 6 phc, and the d-spacing of clay layers in the composite were improved in the presence of compatibilizer.

Influence of maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene compatibiliser on the tensile, oxygen barrier and thermal properties of rice husk and nanoclay-filled low-density polyethylene composite films

“…Zabihzadeh et al 23 have reported that incorporating only 2 wt % compatibiliser into the chemi-mechanical pulp reinforced-polypropylene increased the composite tensile strength by more than 30% by changing the composite morphology and the interface between the two phases. Hemmasi et al 18 have also reported a similar behaviour for natural fibre and nanoclay filler-filled polyolefin system compatibilised with maleic anhydride-grafted co-polymers. These results show the beneficial effect of the compatibiliser and that using MaPE certainly improved the tensile properties.…”

Influence of Organically Modified Nanoclay on Thermal and Combustion Properties of Bagasse Reinforced HDPE Nanocomposites

“…The incorporation of 2 phc OMMT led to the increase in the flexural strength and modulus about 37 and 29%, respectively. The significant improvement in the flexural properties was related to the large aspect ratio and high interfacial contact area of the nanoparticles [10,[12][13][14][15][16][18][19][20][21][22]. As it can be clearly seen from Fig.…”

“…This increment in the tensile properties was mainly attributed to the reinforcing effect of OMMT with high aspect ratio [10,[12][13][14][15][16]. It was expected that strong interfacial adhesion between polymer matrix and nanoparticles efficiently transferred the stress and improved the mechanical properties [18][19][20][21][22]. The reduction in the tensile values by further addition of OMMT (from 2 to 6 phc) could be generally explained by the agglomeration or poor dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix [12-16, 18, 20-22].…”

“…Nowadays, the application of organo-modified montmorillonite (OMMT) as a nano-sized reinforcement in WPCs has been developed. It is evident that the addition of small amount of nanoclay (3-5 wt%) substantially enhance the WPCs performance [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Effect of weathering on physical and mechanical properties of hybrid nanocomposite based on polyethylene, woodflour and nanoclay

“…However it should be noted that the negative effect of nanoclay on weathering is balanced by two phenomena. Dispersion of nanoclay as a positive effect could enhance the MOE (Hemmasi et al 2010), and also barrier properties of nanoclay decrease the water penetration into nanocomposite materials (Ashori and Nourbakhsh 2011) and then less drop of MOE occurs by decreasing of water absorption. Scientists stated that the mechanical properties of woodflour filled polymer composites are negatively affected by moisture (Stark et al 2003).…”