Investigation on Properties of Polypropylene/Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes Nanocomposites Prepared by a Novel Eccentric Rotor Extruder Based on Elongational Rheology

ABSTRACT

The properties of polymer matrix composites are related not only to the chemical composition of the materials but also to the processing equipment used for their preparation which has a direct influence on the microstructure of the composites. In this paper polypropylene (PP)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending through a self-developed, eccentric rotor extruder (ERE). The structure and elongational deformation mechanism of an ERE were described in detail. The morphological, rheological, thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting PP/MWCNTs nanocomposites were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and rheological analysis showed that the MWCNTs were well dispersed in the PP matrix. The thermal stability was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and indicated that the addition of MWCNTs could effectively improve the thermal stability of pure PP. The percentage of crystallinity and tensile strength of the composites were improved as a result of the heterogeneous nucleation effect of the MWCNTs in the PP matrix. The research results revealed that the enhancement of the properties of PP/MWCNTs composites could be attributed to a better dispersion of the MWCNTs in the matrix as compared to samples prepared by conventional extrusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Eccentric rotor extruder
• elongational rheology
• filler dispersion
• multi-walled carbon nanotubes
• nanocomposites
• Polypropylene

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51435005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51505153), the National Instrumentation Program (Grant No. 2012YQ230043), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0302301), the PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2016A030310429) and the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant No. 201607010240), for financial support.

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51435005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51505153), the National Instrumentation Program (Grant No. 2012YQ230043), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0302301), the PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2016A030310429) and the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant No. 201607010240), for financial support.