Preparation of Isotactic Polypropylene/Exfoliated MoS₂ Nanocomposites via In Situ Intercalative Polymerization.

He-Xin Zhang,Xue-Quan Zhang,Keun-Byoung Yoon

doi:10.3390/polym9100490

He-Xin Zhang, Xue-Quan Zhang + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym9100490

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Abstract

In this research, a Ziegler–Natta catalyst intercalated MoS2 was synthesized through the intercalation of a Grignard reagent into MoS2 galleries, followed by the anchoring of TiCl4. During propylene polymerization, the intercalated MoS2 exfoliated in situ to form PP/exfoliated MoS2 (EMoS2) nanocomposites. The isotactic index values of the resultant PP/EMoS2 nanocomposites were as high as 99%, varying from 98.1% to 99.0%. It was found that the incorporation of the EMoS2 significantly improved the thermal stability and mechanical properties (tensile strength, modulus, and elongation at break) of PP. After introduction of EMoS2, the maximum increases in Td5% and Tdmax were 36.9 and 9.7 °C, respectively, relative to neat PP. After blending with commercial PP, the resultant nanocomposites increase in tensile strength and modulus up to 11.4% and 61.2% after 0.52 wt % EMoS2 loading. Thus, this work provides a new way to produce high-performance PP.

Highlights

Polyolefin is the most widely used materials because of its excellent combination of chemical and physical properties, as well as having low production cost, superior processability, and good recyclability
These results indicate that the PP/exfoliated MoS2 (EMoS2) nanocomposites obtained by in situ results indicate that the PP/EMoS2 nanocomposites obtained by in situ polymerization using the polymerization using the MoS2-MgCl/TiCl4 catalyst provide a facile approach to efficient
EMoS2 nanofillers were successfully fabricated using an in situ exfoliation method during the well-dispersed EMoS2 nanofillers were successfully fabricated using an in situ exfoliation method propylene polymerization, displaying enhanced thermal stability compared to neat PP

Summary

Introduction

Polyolefin is the most widely used materials because of its excellent combination of chemical and physical properties, as well as having low production cost, superior processability, and good recyclability. For advanced applications, it is necessary to improve the performance of polyolefin in terms of its properties such as stiffness and rigidity in forming nanocomposites. The study of polyolefin nanocomposites has attracted considerable attention, because of their high potential as materials with improved properties, such as mechanical and thermal stability, flame resistance, and thermal and electrical conductivities. According to the reports [6,7], MoS2 monolayers exhibit more higher mechanical properties (breaking strength: ~23 GPa; Young modulus: ~300 GPa) than chemically reduced graphene. MoS2 has a great potential to fabricate high-performance organic–inorganic polymer nanocomposites. Such as PVA, PS, PMMA, and chitosan have been successfully applied in nanocomposite fabrication with

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