Improvement in impact property of continuous glass mat reinforced polypropylene composites

Abstract

The toughened polypropylene (PP) was obtained by the blending of PP with ethylene-propylene diene monomer (EPDM). The impact property of continuous glass mat-reinforced polypropylene was adjusted through three ways: different toughness PPs and their blends were used as matrices, the functionalized polypropylene was added into the matrix to control the interfacial adhesion; the ductile interlayer was introduced at the fiber/matrix interphase by the grafting and crosslinking of rubber chains on fiber surface. The effect of PP toughness, interfacial adhesion, and ductile interlayer on the mechanical properties of composite systems was studied. The impact toughness of GMT increased with increasing the matrix toughness, whereas the flexural strength and modulus decreased. The good interfacial adhesion resulted in the low impact toughness. However, GMT composite with high strength, modulus, and impact toughness could be obtained by the introduction of a ductile interlayer at fiber/matrix interphase. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 2680–2688, 2002