Polystyrene/Polyolefin Elastomer Blends Loaded with Halloysite Nanotubes: Morphological, Mechanical, and Gas Barrier Properties

Herein, a simple melt‐blending method is utilized to disperse of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) in polystyrene/polyolefin elastomer (PS/POE) blends. Based on morphological studies, the PS/POE/HNT nanocomposite containing up to 3 phr HNTs shows excellent nanofiller dispersion, while those filled with 5...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Macromolecular materials and engineering 2023-09, Vol.308 (9), p.n/a
Main Authors: Tayouri, Mohammad Iman, Estaji, Sara, Mousavi, Seyed Rasoul, Yazdanbakhsh, Amirhosein, Nouranian, Sasan, Ruckdäschel, Holger, Khonakdar, Hossein Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Compatibilizers
Dispersion
Elastomers
gas permeability
Gaseous diffusion
halloysite nanotubes
Maleic anhydride
Mechanical properties
Morphology
Nanocomposites
Nanotubes
Packaging materials
Permeability
Polymer blends
polyolefin elastomers
Polyolefins
Polypropylene
Polystyrene
Polystyrene resins
Water vapor
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Summary:Herein, a simple melt‐blending method is utilized to disperse of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) in polystyrene/polyolefin elastomer (PS/POE) blends. Based on morphological studies, the PS/POE/HNT nanocomposite containing up to 3 phr HNTs shows excellent nanofiller dispersion, while those filled with 5 phr HNTs exhibit nanofiller aggregation. To overcome the nanofiller aggregation issue, the polypropylene‐grafted‐maleic anhydride (PP‐ g ‐MA) compatibilizer is added to the PS/POE/HNT nanocomposite, which results in improved mechanical properties for the nanocomposite sheets. Furthermore, the addition of compatibilized HNTs to the PS/POE blends leads to decreased O 2 and N 2 gas permeabilities. Besides, incorporating POE, HNTs, and PP‐ g ‐MA leads to a decrease in water vapor transmission of PS. In the end, the experimentally‐determined mechanical properties and gas permeabilities of the nanocomposite sheets are compared to those predicted by prevalent theoretical models, revealing a good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results. Molecular‐dynamics simulations are also carried out to calculate the gas diffusion coefficients in the different sheets to further support the experimental findings in this study. Overall, the PS/POE/HNT/PP‐ g ‐MA nanocomposite sheets fabricated in this work demonstrate excellent mechanical and gas barrier properties; and hence, can be used as candidate packaging materials. However, the strength of the resulting PS/POE blend may be inferior to that of the virgin PS.
ISSN:1438-7492
1439-2054
DOI:10.1002/mame.202300080