Effect of Carbon Nanotubes on the Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene/Wood Flour Composites: Reinforcement Mechanism

Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MA) was employed as the compatibilizer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or hydroxylated CNTs as reinforcements for polypropylene/wood flour composites. The results showed that when the PP-g-MA loading level was 10 wt%, the bending strength, tensile strength, I...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of macromolecular science. Physics 2011-05, Vol.50 (5), p.907-921
Main Authors: Song, Ping-An, Yang, Hai-Tang, Fu, Shen-Yuan, Wu, Qiang, Ye, Jie-Wang, Lu, Feng-Zhu, Jin, Yong-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Carbon nanotubes
Composites
Exact sciences and technology
Flour
Forms of application and semi-finished materials
Mechanical properties
morphology
Polymer industry, paints, wood
Polymer matrix composites
polypropylene
Polypropylenes
Reinforcement
reinforcement mechanism
Technology of polymers
Tensile strength
Wood
wood flour
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Summary:Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MA) was employed as the compatibilizer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or hydroxylated CNTs as reinforcements for polypropylene/wood flour composites. The results showed that when the PP-g-MA loading level was 10 wt%, the bending strength, tensile strength, Izod notched impact strength, and elongation at break of PP-wood composites were enhanced by 85% (66.3 MPa), 93% (33.7 MPa), 5.8% (2.01 kJ/m 2 ), and 64% (23%), respectively, relative to the uncompatibilized composites. The introduction of pristine CNTs only improved slightly the overall mechanical properties of the compatibilized composites due to poor interfacial compatibility. Unlike CNTs, incorporating hydroxylated CNTs (CNT-OH) could significantly improve all of the mechanical properties; for instance, at 0.5 wt% CNT-OH loading, the flexural strength and tensile strength reached 68.5 MPa, and 40.4 MPa about 6.6% higher than that for the composites with the same CNT loading. Furthermore, CNT-OH also remarkably enhanced the storage modulus. Contact angle and morphology observations indicated that the increases in mechanical properties could be attributed to the improvements of interfacial interactions and adhesions of CNTs with the matrix and fillers.
ISSN:0022-2348
1525-609X
DOI:10.1080/00222348.2010.497063