Investigation of thermal, rheological and mechanical properties of interfacially modified PP/mica composites

Abstract

AbstractComposites of polypropylene (PP) with mica powder were produced by melt mixing in an internal mixer. In this research work, the effect of the interfacial modifiers such as maleated polypropylene (MAPP) and silane coupling agent, that encapsulated the mica (treated mica), on the mechanical, thermal and rheological characteristics of mica-filled PP have been investigated. In the literature, it can be seen that increasing mica powder leads to reduced crystallinity of PP. But our results show that reduction in crystallinity is noticeably lesser when interfacial modifier such as MAPP is used. Also, the results of thermogravimetric analysis test showed that MAPP and treated mica caused improvement of heat resistance of the composites. The degradation shifted to higher temperatures which could be due to adhesion between PP and mica powder. The mica powder when added to PP increased the viscosity considerably. However treated mica/PP composite in molten state had noticeably less viscosity in comparison with that of neat micafilled PP and thus having better moldability. Results of decrease in elongation at break with filler content have been compared with predictions of Nielsen’s model and Mitsuishi equation.