PP/TPV/nanoclay hybrid composites: mechanical and frac-ture performance of injected pieces

ANTONIO PONTES; MARIA ALEJANDRA COSTANTINO; PATRICIA FRONTINI; VALERIA PETTARIN

Merseburg

Conferencia; International Scientific Conference PolyMerTec16 - 15th conference Deformation and Fracture Behaviour of Polymers; 2016

PP is a commodity polymer which applications are still limited by its poor impact resistance and high notch sensitivity. These disadvantages could be overcome by modifying PP with elastomers to toughen it, or with a rigid particle to strength it. Polymer blend nanocompo-sites containing an elastomer and reinforcing filler have attracted much attention due to the incorporation of the properties of both polymer blends and polymer nanocomposites. Poly-propylene (PP)/thermoplastic vulcanizated (TPV)/clay nanocomposites could be such high performance material. According to some manufacturers PP and TPV compounds provide the strength and surface characteristics to replace metals and expensive plastic materials in tough, practical and aesthetically important automotive applications. Among nanofillers em-ployed for nanocomposite preparation, clay is vastly used owing to its unique structure with a high aspect ratio and its natural abundance. In order to optimize mechanical and fracture properties, the knowledge of the relationship between morphology and deformation beha-viour is essential. The present work aims to evaluate the influence of the addition of TPV and nanoclay on the performance of PP injected mouldings. A complete characterization, includ-ing morphological and mechanical characterization along with its relationship, of double gated injection moulded PP parts with TPV and clay is presented. It was found that the addi-tion of nanoclay to PP/TPV composites was successful in minimizing notch sensitivity without losing impact performance, which was far above PP performance.