Study of thermal behaviour of propylene copolymer/o-MMT nanocomposites

VERÓNICA RIECHERT; LIDIA MARÍA QUINZANI; MARCELO DANIEL FAILLA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 6th International Conference on Science and Technology of Composite Materials (COMAT?15); 2015

COMAT 2015

The incorporation of small amounts of delaminated clay, with its high aspect ratio, enhances mechanical, physical and barrier properties of neat polymers, retaining most of their transparency and low density. A commercial random propylene-ethylene-butene terpolymer with 3wt% of ethylene and 8wt% of 1-butene (PEBC) was melt mixed with different amounts of a commercial organophilic montmorillonite (o-MMT). The PEBC functionalized with maleic anhydride (PEBCg) was used as compatibilizer. According to XRD and SEM results, intercalated/exfoliated composites with well distributed nanoparticles are obtained. It is observed that the grafted polymer has a slightly nucleating effect, which decreases even more when the clay is incorporated. This result agrees with the estimated values of the activation energy of crystallization. The thermogravimetric analysis reveals that the addition of the clay increases the initial temperature of degradation of the PEBC by 40°C and accel-erates its decomposition process.