Processing and Property Relationship of Polypropylene Monofilaments Containing Nanoclay

This study focuses on combining traditional polymeric materials with nanoclays to engineer new composite monofilaments for nontraditional industries using extrusion process. Polypropylene/nanoclay composite monofilaments were produced using single screw extruder, and the structure and properties of new monofilaments were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), XRay diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA), differential scanning calorimeter, and Instron universal testing machine. Composite monofilaments were prepared at different weight percentage of nanoclay (1%, 2%, and 3%) and compatabilizer (10%, 15%, and 20%) contents. The results showed that the amount of the nanoclay and compatabilizer affected the formation and final properties of the new monofilaments. It was observed that tensile stress of composite monofilament decreased compared to pure polypropylene monofilament. Melting temperature and degree of crystallinity were not affected much; however, there was significant increase at decomposition temperature of composite polypropylene monofilaments.