TENSILE PROPERTIES OF POLYPROPYLENE/METAL OXIDE NANO COMPOSITES

Abstract

Polymers reinforced with nano metal oxides open up new pathways for engineering flexible composites that exhibit better mechanical and chemical properties. In this study, tensile properties of the polypropylene (PP) composites filled with nano titan dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) were investigated. Nano particles were coated with maleic anhydride grafted styrene ethylene butylene styrene (SEBS-g-MA) and silane, respectively prior melt mixing for better surface adhesion and fine dispersion. Nano composites were obtained by using twin screw extruder at TiO2 and ZnO loading of 1%, 3% and 5%. Firstly, thermal analysis was done to obtain melt temperature, crystallization temperature and degree of crystallinity. Then, tensile test was applied to obtain yield strength, tensile strength, elastic modulus and elongation of the composites. Due to the stiff structure of the metal oxides, all tensile properties except elongation were increased. On the other hand, although TiO2 has higher hardness than ZnO, the elongation of the composites with TiO2 was higher than that of with ZnO. This is probably due to the better compatibility of TiO2 with SEBS-g-MA and this case induced more fine structure of TiO2 with PP while ZnO particles agglomerated in some regions of the matrix which confirms the results of lower elongation and degree of crystallization

Keywords

• polypropylene, nanocomposite, titan dioxide, zinc oxide, tensile properties

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