Effect of extrusion reprocessing on the mechanical, thermal, rheological and morphological properties of nylon 6/talc nanocomposites

Abstract

In this study, the preparation of nylon 6/talc nanocomposites was studied by melt blending in a co-rotating twin-screw extruder having length/diameter ratio of 32:1 at a screw rotation speed of 100 r min À1 . Concentration of nanotalc was varied from 1 phr to 5 phr in nylon 6. The composite samples were subjected to a series of three extrusion cycles, and the effect of reprocessing on the structural properties of materials was investigated. Properties such as mechanical (tensile flexural and impact), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry), morphological (scanning electron microscopy), rheological (viscosity vs. shear rate), and colour spectrophotometry were investigated. This study would enrich the knowledge about the recycling of nylon 6, with the additional aspect of the use of collected data from more complex system, that is, composite materials, where the nanotalc particles play a role in the interactions initiated by repeated extrusion processing. Mechanical, thermal, rheological and colour properties improved with the increase in nanotalc in nylon 6 and remained nearly unchanged up to second extrusion processing. However, all the properties decreased on third extrusion processing due to the degradation of nylon 6 matrix.

The influence of recycling number on the mechanical, chemical, thermal and rheological properties of poly(butylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate binary blend and glass-fibre-reinforced composite

“…Insignificant change in T m with recycling process was also reported in other studies. 21,22 However, ÁH m and c altered with the recycling process and the presence of glass-fiber in PBT/PC. The values of the crystallinity for PBT/PC were found to be increasing tendency with recycling process and the values were in the range of 35%-50%.…”

The effects of recycling process on thermal, chemical, rheological, and mechanical properties of PC/ABS binary and PA6/PC/ABS ternary blends

“…There was no change in the T m value with recycling number for other polymer blends in the literature. 34 –37…”

Fabrication and investigation of the mechanical properties of PVC/carbon fiber/graphene nanocomposite pipes for oil and gas applications

“…In addition, they demonstrated that fifth-recycled PBT/PC-GF composites could be used as a substitute for virgin PBT/PC. Kadam and Mhaske 25 investigated the effects of reprocessing (three extrusion cycles) on the structural properties of nylon 6/talc nanocomposites. Their results confirmed that on the first extrusion, tensile strength and tensile modulus increased by 36.7% and 169.7%, respectively.…”

“…In the literature,[ [24][25][26] ] once the composite is produced, it is returned to the cycle by shredding into small pieces or grinding while it is reprocessed. However, since the molten material (in this case) is consolidated and re-molten, some voids occur on the fracture surface of the composite materials, which are increased by increasing the recycling number and weakening the interfacial shear strength between the fiber and the matrix.…”