Tuning the functionalization chemistry of polypropylene for polypropylene/clay nanocomposites

Rousseaux, Dimitri;Sclavons, Michel;Godard, Pierre;Marchand-Brynaert, Jacqueline
(2012) Reactive and Functional Polymers — Vol. 72, n° 1, p. 17-24 (2012)

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Authors
  • Rousseaux, DimitriUCLouvain
    Author
  • Sclavons, MichelUCLouvain
    Author
  • Godard, PierreUCLouvain
    Author
  • Marchand-Brynaert, JacquelineUCLouvain
    Author
Abstract
New polypropylene (PP)-graft-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) samples have been successfully synthesized by adding N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) during the reactive extrusion process. These NBS-mediated PP-g-MAs possess higher graft content than classic PP-g-MAs (i.e. without NBS) while they keep acceptable molar masses. NBS-mediated PP-g-MAs were used as matrices in model PP-g-MA/organoclay nanocomposites and compared with commercial and home-made classic PP-g-MAs in order to evaluate their ability to disperse the clay. Significantly better degrees of clay delamination and dispersion were reached using NBS-mediated PP-g-MAs than with classic PP-g-MAs. As expected, PP-g-MAs having high graft content showed the best clay dispersion. Within the examined range of molar masses, the PP-g-MA molar mass had no influence on the clay dispersion. However PP-g-MAs exhibiting important reduction of crystallinity lead to poor clay dispersion whatever the graft content. The PP-g-MA/organoclay nanocomposite prepared using the selected "optimized" NBS-mediated PP-g-MA exhibited the best improvement of thermal properties and one of the best clay dispersions. PP/PP-g-MA blends were prepared to evaluate the miscibility between PP and selected PP-g-MAs. No problem of miscibility between the selected NBS-mediated PP-g-MA and PP was noticed. Finally the PP/organoclay prepared using the selected NBS-mediated PP-g-MA as compatibilizer showed much better clay dispersion and thermal stability than the one prepared with the corresponding classic PP-g-MA, thus establishing the interest to use such new NBS-mediated PP-g-MAs as compatibilizers. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Citations

Rousseaux, D., Sclavons, M., Godard, P., & Marchand-Brynaert, J. (2012). Tuning the functionalization chemistry of polypropylene for polypropylene/clay nanocomposites. Reactive and Functional Polymers, 72(1), 17-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2011.10.005 (Original work published 2012)