Greatly improved toughness of isotactic polypropylene blends with traces of carbon nanotubes

Chen, Yanhui; Fan, Qunbo; Song, Yang; Zhang, Qiuyu; Li, Zhong‐Ming

doi:10.1002/pen.25000

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(37 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Since the fracture resistance is the substantial response of the molecular chain mobility, the enhanced of the molecular chain mobility signifies the higher dissipation of impact energy, and finally results in the significant enhancement of the impact properties of the iPP/elastormer or rubber blends. In our previous work, we studied the effect of a series of elastomers like styrene butadiene styrene block polymer, strene‐ethylele‐butadiene‐styrene block copolymer, and polyolefin elastomer on the toughness of iPP with CNTs and β‐NAs . All the blends demonstrated highly improved toughness at the room temperature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great improvement of low‐temperature impact resistance of isotactic polypropylene/ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber blends by traces of carbon nanotubes and β‐nucleating agents

Fan

Zhang

et al. 2019

Polymers for Advanced Techs

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work, a considerable low-temperature toughness enhancement of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was achieved by adding 30 wt% ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) as well as traces of β-nucleating agent (β-NAs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The impact strength of the iPP/30 wt% EPDM blend with 0.1 wt% β-NAs reached 6.57 kJ/m 2 at −20°C, over 2.5 times of pure iPP. A slightly improved impact strength was further found in the β-nucleated iPP/30 wt% EPDM at the presence of 0.05 wt% CNTs. The presence of traces of CNTs, β-NAs, and EPDM displayed synergistic low-temperature toughness reinforcement effect on the iPP blends. The underlying toughening mechanism was attributed to the formation of a great amount of voids and plastic deformation of iPP matrix affected by CNTs, β-NAs, and EPDM.Our work provided a feasible strategy to significantly increase the low-temperature toughness of iPP. methods. The addition of β-nucleating agents (β-NAs) proved to be the most effective method to induce many β-crystals in iPP. Copious amounts of studies have revealed that the introduction of β-NAs can only significantly improve the room-temperature toughness of iPP. 12-15 For instance, Grein et al 16 found that the sole addition of β-NAs was insufficient to enhance the low-temperature toughness of iPP, and the fracture behavior is susceptible to the crystalline structure only when the test temperature exceeded the glass transition temperature. Likewise, the tensile strength and modulus of β-iPP were also deteriorated, due to the loosely stacking crystal structure of β-crystals. The rigid nanofillers like calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were usually acted as the reinforcement fillers for polymers. 17-20 Liu et al 21 observed that the tensile strength and Young's modulus of iPP/CNT nanocomposites with 3 wt% CNTs were improved by 72 and 37%, respectively, as compared with pure iPP. Interestingly, the rigid nanofillers also showed the potential to enhance the impact toughness of iPP. Wang et al 22 reported that iPP nanocomposites with 0.5 wt% CNTs demonstrated the improved impact strength by 27% compared with the pure iPP. As a matter of fact, either one aforementioned factors is not enough to significantly improve the low-temperature toughness of iPP. Thus, a few studies were carried out to incorporate two of above factors. Kotek et al 23 investigated the synergistic effect of ethylenepropylene copolymer (EPR) and β-NAs on the low-temperature toughness of iPP and found that the elongation at break of the β-nucleated iPP/EPR blends was increased by 121% at a low temperature (−40°C). Hu et al 24 observed that the iPP blends containing β-NAs and ethylene-octene copolymer exhibited excellent low-temperature impact toughness compared with pure iPP and revealed the combined effects of matrix crystalline structure and the amorphous chain mobility on the low-temperature toughness of the blends. Nonetheless, there are only a few publication focused on the low-temperature toughness of iPP, not even to mention t...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great improvement of low‐temperature impact resistance of isotactic polypropylene/ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber blends by traces of carbon nanotubes and β‐nucleating agents

Fan

Zhang

et al. 2019

Polymers for Advanced Techs

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In this case, a large amount of interfacial defects may be induced owing to the poor interaction between CNT and matrix. Previously works reported that a small dosage of CNT tended to enhance the mechanical performance of the prepared composites 6,11–17 . Increasing the content of CNT to a critical value; however, deteriorated mechanical property was revealed 17,18 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Previously works reported that a small dosage of CNT tended to enhance the mechanical performance of the prepared composites. 6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Increasing the content of CNT to a critical value; however, deteriorated mechanical property was revealed. 17,18 This percolation threshold of CNTs in improving the physical properties of PP/CNTs composites under the circumstances of no compatibilizer was reported as 0.3 wt% 15 and under the circumstances with compatibilizer was less than~1.5 wt%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breakage of carbon nanotube agglomerates within polypropylene matrix by solid phase die drawing

Lin

Gong

Innes

et al. 2020

J of Applied Polymer Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Melt blending of polyolefin/carbon nanotube (CNT) composites always leads to serious agglomeration of CNTs and hence inferior properties. Thus, welldispersed CNTs within matrix are urgently required during processing. In this work, effective breakage of CNT agglomerates was achieved by solid-phase die drawing at a temperature below but near to the melting temperature of the matrix. Experimental results indicate that the incurred extensional stress provides a high orientation degree on the polypropylene (PP) matrix and consequently helps rupture CNT agglomerates, leading to improved alternating current(AC) conductivity by~5-6 orders in magnitude. The reduced agglomerate ratio, the altered CNT networks (3D!2D), and the improved interfacial morphology between CNT and matrix are suggested to be responsible for the viscoelasticity variation of the composite melt and the improved property of PP/multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs) composite. The initial loss of tensile ductility by the incorporation of MWCNTs is recovered by nearly 100%, which was attributed to the low agglomeration rate and improved interfacial morphology. This article provided the potential inspiration for the melt blending of polymer melt and CNTs.

show abstract

“…Among these fillers, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have captured a great amount of attention due to their outstanding tensile modulus (270-950 GPa) [1], tensile strength [1], thermal (200-3,000 W/m/K at 300 K) [2][3][4] and electrical conductivity (10 2 -10 7 S/m at 300 K) [5], high aspect ratio [6], and role as viscosity modifier [7]. CNTs also act as nucleating agent for polymer crystallization [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and have the potential for templating polymer interphase including ordered graphitic structure [15][16][17], as well as nanohybrid shish kebab [18,19] and transcrystalline structures [20][21][22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of interfacial chemistry on crystallization of polypropylene/multiwall carbon nanotube nanocomposites

Wang

Gulgunje

Ghoshal

et al. 2019

Polymer Engineering & Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study systematically investigates the polymer–carbon nanotube (CNT) interaction when the interphase is tailored. Maleic anhydride‐grafted‐polypropylene (MA‐g‐PP) or polypropylene (PP) was noncovalently coated onto acid functionalized multiwall nanotube (f‐MWNT) through solution mixing. These coated f‐MWNTs were melt microcompounded with neat PP to form PP/f‐MWNT nanocomposites. The effects of functional groups and the thin layer of solution processed polymers, namely, MA‐g‐PP or PP, at the PP/f‐MWNT interface on crystallization and on melting behavior of matrix PP were investigated. The results were compared with a pristine MWNT (p‐MWNT) incorporated system. It was shown that PP coated CNTs can serve as a strong nucleating agent for templated polymer crystal growth. Unlike other PP nanocomposites in the literature, a relatively high shift of 7°C in melting peak maximum (Tp), along with a sharp melt endotherm was achieved with the addition of 0.3 wt% f‐MWNT via PP/f‐MWNT master batch. This indicates refinement of matrix PP crystalline region due to the tailored f‐MWNT surface chemistry. With a designed self‐seeding and templated crystal growth approach, columnar crystalline interphases were found surrounding MWNT which melted at 10.5°C higher temperature than neat PP crystallized without undergoing the same heat treatment protocol. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:1570–1584 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers

show abstract

Greatly improved toughness of isotactic polypropylene blends with traces of carbon nanotubes

Cited by 10 publications

References 34 publications

Great improvement of low‐temperature impact resistance of isotactic polypropylene/ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber blends by traces of carbon nanotubes and β‐nucleating agents

Great improvement of low‐temperature impact resistance of isotactic polypropylene/ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber blends by traces of carbon nanotubes and β‐nucleating agents

Breakage of carbon nanotube agglomerates within polypropylene matrix by solid phase die drawing

Effect of interfacial chemistry on crystallization of polypropylene/multiwall carbon nanotube nanocomposites

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About