Impact of silane treated basalt fibers and montmorillonite nano-clay on polypropylene composites

Abstract

This work is a relative study of the hardness and tribological properties of the polypropylene composites comprising different wt% of fibers and fillers. Montmorillonite nanoclay particle (NC) and basalt fiber (BF) are used as reinforcement in the polypropylene (PP) matrix. Four different composites were prepared with varying wt% of NC (0%, 3%, 5% and 7%) along with the constant wt% of the silane treated BF (30%). The twin-screw extruders used for proper mixing of the matrix and reinforcements followed by the compression molding. The prepared composites were then subjected to the Shore D hardness test and wear test. L-16 orthogonal array, Taguchi’s design of experiments was implemented to examine the best wear resistance among the composites used for the investigation. The experimental results indicate that the wear resistance of the composite materials increases with increase in wt% of BF and NC. At the same time, it is also observed that, there are not much significant improvements in the Shore D hardness values of the composites with varying wt% of the NC. Scanning electron microscopy was used for the analysis of the surface morphology of the wear samples which indicate different wear mechanisms such as ploughing, fiber failure and de-lamination.