A Study of Nanocomposites Based on Polypropylene and Synthetic Saponite

FEDERICO SCODELARO; NICOLÁS CARO RODRÍGUEZ; MARCELO DANIEL FAILLA; LIDIA MARÍA QUINZANI

Río de Janeiro, Brasil

Congreso; 2nd Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering and 4th Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering (ENPROMER?05); 2005

Escola de Química, UFRJ - Centro de Tecnologia, Rio de Janeiro ? Brazil

Mixing inorganic fillers and organic polymeric materials can produce polymeric nanocomposites if the filler has at least one dimension in the nanometer scale. These nanocomposites generally show mechanical properties similar to those of conventional composites and improved thermal stability, gas and moisture barrier properties and flame retardance. The objective of this work is to synthesize inorganic particles to use as filler of nanocomposites based on polypropylene. The advantage of using synthetic clays over natural ones are that those clays have more uniform chemical composition and size distribution and that they may be formed by individual platelets of controlled size. In this work, Mg-saponite particles are prepared following the method proposed by Vogels and Geus. The synthesize particles have a length of approximately 30 nm, an specific surface of about 240 m2/g and, according to X-ray results, no stacking of layers exists. The mixing of the nanoparticles with polypropylene is carried out in the molten state using a laboratory mixer. Polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride is used as a compatibilizer to improve the interaction between the hydrophobic polypropylene and the hydrophilic clay. The thermal behavior and the dynamic properties of the composites are analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry and rotational rheometry.