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Polypropylene montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending using two different organoclays modified with imidazolium and alkylammonium surfactants. The imidazolium and ammonium modified organoclays were characterized by the FTIR and SEM analysis. The effect of organic clay (MMT) on the physical properties of polypropylene was evaluated, thermal and rheological properties with different filler weight percentage. Differential scanning calorimetric results showed that imidazolium modified clay (IMMT) exhibits low melting temperature compared to the ammonium modified clay (AMMT). The crystallinity analysis showed that crystallization improved in all nanocomposites irrespective of surface modification; the thermogravimetric analysis showed that the imidazolium modified polymer composites are more thermally stable than conventional ammonium modified composites. The Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses indicated that the PP-IMMT composites displayed exfoliated morphologies compared with the intercalated structure in PP-AMMT, and the rheological analysis at 180 ∘ C showed an enhancement in the viscoelastic properties as the clay concentration increases. The melt viscosity, crossover modulus, and relaxation times were comparable for both the surface modified composites with two different cations. The imidazolium based surfactant was found to be an effective organic modification for MMT to prepare thermally stable PP/MMT nanocomposites.

Polypropylene (PP) is a commodity material that has been increasingly used in different industries in the past two decades due to its versatile properties when enhanced with additives. Homo polypropylene, in general, has weak mechanical properties and limited chemical resistance; thus, using a different type of fillers to adjust such properties to fit the required applications opened a large market for this commodity. Understanding the interface constituent between the polymer matrix and the added filler and the nucleation behavior is a key to fine control of the enhancement of PP properties. In this study, PP was incorporated with nano calcium carbonate (CaCO3) at 2 and 5 wt% in the presence of maleic anhydride (MAH) to overcome the weak interface due to low polymer polarity. The mix was compounded in a twin screws extruder at a temperature range of 180–200 °C ; then, the prepared samples were left to dry for 24 h at 25 °C. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was used to study the interface adhesion of the nanofiller and the curved revealed that at 2% of nano CaCO3 PP structure remained the same and the nano experienced good adhesion to the polymer matrix. The mechanical impact resistance results showed a real enhancement to the polymer matrix of the nanocomposite by 37%. Moreover, DSC results showed a faster crystallinity rate due to the nanofiller acting as a nucleating agent and rheology tests indicated that low content of nano additive (2%) has better processability behavior, with suitable viscosity complex values at high frequencies.

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