PROCESSING AND FINAL PROPERTIES IMPROVEMENT OF POLYOLEFIN- SEPIOLITE AND CARBON NANOFIBRE NANOCOMPOSITES

LA TEGOLA, SIMONE; TERENZI, ANDREA; MARTINI, RAQUEL EVANGELINA; TORRE, LUIGI; BARBOSA, SILVIA ELENA; KENNY, JOSÉ M.

MACROMOLECULAR SYMPOSIA

Wiley

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2011 vol. 46 p. 3081 - 3086

1022-1360

In this work polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites with different nanofillers (sepiolites and carbon nanofibers) have been produced, processed by injection moulding and fibre spinning and analyzed in terms of mechanical properties improvements. Different concentrations of both fillers were used in nanocomposites preparation. The influence of nanofiller type and amount on mechanical properties were analyzed and discussed for each process studied. This study was completed with a morphological characterization in order analyze the nanofiller dispersion, distribution and orientation in the nanocomposites. The results achieved show that it is possible to obtain a good dispersion and distribution of the each kind of nanofillers with conventional processing methodologies. Moreover the nanocomposites obtained had better properties than the starting polymers, showing that sepiolite and carbon nanofiller are able to provide an important contribution to the improvement of mechanical properties of the materials analyzed, enlarging the final application possibilities of PP based products.