INTECIN   20395
INSTITUTO DE TECNOLOGIAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA INGENIERIA "HILARIO FERNANDEZ LONG"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Fracture and Thermal Behavior of Biomass Ash Polypropylene Composites
Autor/es:
S. G PARDO; C. BERNAL; M.J. ABAD, J. CANO; A. ARES
Revista:
JOURNAL OF THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Editorial:
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: London; Año: 2012 p. 1 - 17
ISSN:
0892-7057
Resumen:
In this work, the fracture and thermal behaviour of environmentally friendly composites
based on polypropylene (PP), an olefin block copolymer (OBC) and ash from biomass
combustion was investigated. PP/OBC/ash composites with different ash contents and
10 wt% OBC were prepared by extrusion followed by compression moulding. Ash
particles were treated with a silane coupling agent before blending to promote interfacial
adhesion between polymer matrix, OBC and ash. An approach to fracture mechanics
was investigated and showed that the fracture parameters increased when OBC was
used. Fracture surface analysis by scanning electron microscope revealed that the
presence of OBC promotes the material ductile failure and that one of the main failure
mechanisms was fibrillised debonding of ash particles encapsulated by OBC from the
matrix and its subsequent elongation around them. Free OBC inclusions distributed
within the PP matrix would have also induced toughening in the composites investigated.
The crystalline state of PP analysed by differential scanning calorimetry is clearly modified
by the presence of ash particles, increasing the crystallisation rate and the crystallinity
degree of the matrix due to the nucleating effect of the filler. However, the presence
of the copolymer counteracted these effects and the PP crystalline state remained
practically unchanged in the composites with OBC. Finally, environmentally friendly
composites with significantly higher toughness than the matrix or binary PP/ash
composites were obtained by introducing an OBC copolymer in the formulation