Influence of Clay Contents on Rheology of Syndiotactic Polypropylene/Clay Composites

Abstract

The high sensitivity of rheology to microstructure properties of polymer has drawn attention of many researchers from last few decades. A set of syndiotactic polypropylene/clay (sPP/clay) composite samples was used to study the influence of clay contents on the rheological behavior of sPP/clay composites in the melt phase. Small amplitude oscillatory shear experiments were performed using Advanced Rheometric Expansion System. The plateau modulus was found to increase with increasing the clay loading. Consequently, both entanglement molecular weight and packing length were found to decrease with increasing the clay loading. This result confirms that clay contents in the polymer/clay composites affect chain dimensions and parameters and consequently all the chain dynamics.