Studies on morphology and mechanical properties of dispersing intercalated silane montmorillonite in polypropylene matrix

Abstract We used a plastograph‐mixer by the twin‐screw mixed method to obtain the standard shaped specimens of polymer‐clay nanocomposites (PCN) to prepare polypropylene (PP)/silane montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites pellets, grafting with two kinds of different surfactant—hard grafting agent maleic anhydride (MA) or soft grafting agent thermoplastic polyolefin elastomers (TPO). The chemical structure and polymer morphology of these as‐synthesized PCN specimens were characterized by a wide‐angle powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, we prepared these experimental specimens in order to probe into their mechanical properties. The tests used were: layer distance of PCN, tensile, impact, shore‐hardness, wearing tests, and so on. In addition, we used XRD to make the characterization analysis, and compare it to scatter and layer‐distance. It was found that when the MA is increased into the MMT, the layer‐distance at 3 wt% increased from 2.11 nm to 3.54 nm; when increasing the TPO into the MMT, layer‐distance at 3 wt% increased to the 3.28 nm. For the mechanical property, it was found that these specimens grafted with the MA have the following results: in the tensile test, the MMT weight percentage of 1 wt% had the best result, increasing by 3.2%. In the shore hardness test, the MMT of 3 wt% strengthens by 5.41%. In addition, the mechanical property of the specimens that grafted to the TPO decreased almost immediately at 1 wt%, but increased at 3–5 wt% trends. POLYM. COMPOS., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers