Polypropylene/glass fiber/nanoclay hybrid composites: morphological, thermal, dynamic mechanical and impact behaviors

Abstract

Polypropylene/E-glass fiber/nanoclay were compounded with a twin-screw extruder and injection molded. Thermal, dynamic mechanical, and impact tests were carried out. Differential scanning calorimetry investigations showed that the incorporation of nanoclay into polypropylene/glass fiber composite shifted the melting temperature (T m ) to higher values. The degree of crystallinity (X c ) was strongly influenced by the presence of the glass fiber and nanoclay in the matrix. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed an increase in storage modulus (E 0 ); indicating higher stiffness of the hybrid composites when compared to the glass fiber composites and the virgin matrix. From the tan curves, a strong influence of glass fiber and nanoclay content on the magnitude of tan max value was observed. Impact test showed a reduction in the critical strain energy release rate, G c for hybrid composites with higher nanoclay loading. The stress intensity factor, K c values showed insignificant effect with the presence of nanoclay and GF.

Hybrid multifunctional graphene/glass-fibre polypropylene composites

“…For the samples filled with GNPs, the degree of crystallinity of the PP increased with increasing filler content, indicating the high nucleating ability of the nanoplatelets. The crystallinity of the PP-GF samples decreased, however, with increasing GF loading, suggesting that the GFs actually interrupted the linear crystallizable sequence of the macromolecular chains of polypropylene [27,28]. Finally, it was found that the samples filled with the hybrid filler also exhibited a higher degree of crystallinity than the pure matrix.…”

Effect of compatibiliser on the properties of polypropylene/glass fibre/nanoclay composites

“…For the uncompatibilised system, the XRD patterns exhibited a significant increase in interlayer d-spacing (1.25 nm after compounding). This indicates that with higher processing screw speed, the PP is able to intercalate into the NC interlayer, even with poor compatibility between PP and NC [12] . Furthermore, for compatibilised systems, XRD peaks are continually shifted to lower angles, indicating an increase in interlayer d-spacing by the diffusion of PP chains.…”

“…Generally, the compatibilised hybrid composites displayed improved Eʺ values throughout the experimental temperature range. The addition of 2 wt% of MAPP into PP/GF15/NC6 hybrid composite shifted the The ratio of the loss modulus to the storage modulus is measured as the damping factor or mechanical loss (tan δ) [2,12] . Since the damping peak occurred in the region of the glass transition where the material changed from a rigid to a more elastic state, it is associated with the movement of small groups and chains of molecules within the polymer structure [30] .…”

“…Further additions of 5 and 8 wt% of MAPP did not change the T G significantly, but only stabilised the temperature. The addition of 6 phr NC in PP matrix resulted in a decrement in the max tan δ value relative to PP, which indicates that the materials experienced a strengthening effect [2,12] . No changes in tan δ MAX has been observed with the presence of low MAPP loading (2 wt%).…”

“…A number of other researchers also began an investigations with various types of polymer nanocomposites [7][8][9] . Recently, it has been observed that by hybridising nanoparticles into the matrix of fibre-reinforced composites, synergistic effects may be achieved [10][11][12] . Mohan and Kanny [13] in their work, combined PP/NC composite with chopped GF.…”