Morphology and properties of polypropylene/clay nanocomposites prepared by solvent assisted double screw extrusion

MATIAS LANFRANCONI; JOAQUIN ALBERCA; LEANDRO LUDUEÑA; VERA ALVAREZ

Cleveland

Conferencia; 30th International Conference of the PPS (Polymer Processing Society).; 2014

Polypropylene (PP)/clay nanocomposites are being used in automotive industry. The main issue of these materials is to optimize the processing route to obtain highly dispersed clay platelets in the PP matrix. In this work a solvent assisted method was used to prepare the nanocomposites by double screw extrusion. The solvent/clay dispersion is fed in the venting port by a controlled dripping system. The solvent is used to prevent the clay agglomeration before feeding the nanoreinforcement inside the extruder. Several parameters were optimized before processing. First, the chemical compatibility between the clay, the polymer and the solvent was optimized by organo-modification of the clay. Then, we minimized the solvent content in the clay suspension in order to lowering its feeding rate maintaining a fixed and highly dispersed clay content in the nanocomposite. Several clay contents nanocomposites were prepared. Polymer strands were pelletized after extrusion and polymer sheets were prepared by compression molding. The morphology of the nanocomposites was analyzed by X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties were studied by tensile and impact tests.