Research Article

Evaluation of toughening mechanisms of polypropylene/ethylene–octene copolymer/maleic anhydride-grafted poly(ethylene-co-octene)/clay nanocomposite

  1. Sedigheh Bagheri-Kazemabad1,
  2. Alireza Khavandi1,*,
  3. Biqiong Chen2,*

Article first published online: 4 JUL 2012

DOI: 10.1002/pi.4308

Issue

Polymer International

Polymer International

Volume 62, Issue 4, pages 566–572, April 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Bagheri-Kazemabad, S., Khavandi, A. and Chen, B. (2013), Evaluation of toughening mechanisms of polypropylene/ethylene–octene copolymer/maleic anhydride-grafted poly(ethylene-co-octene)/clay nanocomposite. Polym. Int., 62: 566–572. doi: 10.1002/pi.4308

Author Information

  1. 1

    School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran

  2. 2

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK

* Correspondence to: Alireza Khavandi, School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: khavandi@iust.ac.ir
Biqiong Chen, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK. E-mail: biqiong.chen@sheffield.ac.uk

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 20 MAR 2013
  2. Article first published online: 4 JUL 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 19 MAY 2012
  4. Manuscript Revised: 16 APR 2012
  5. Manuscript Received: 12 FEB 2012

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Keywords:

  • toughening mechanism;
  • nanocomposite;
  • clay;
  • polymer blend;
  • crazing

Abstract

The toughness of a polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC)/maleic anhydride-grafted poly(ethylene-co-octene) (EOC-g-MA)/clay nanocomposite and blends of PP/EOC and PP/EOC/EOC-g-MA was investigated using Charpy impact and single-edge-notch tensile (SENT) tests. In order to understand the toughening mechanisms, impact fracture surfaces and damage zones of single-edge-notch samples were studied with scanning electron microscopy and transmission optical microscopy, respectively. It was observed that the addition of EOC-g-MA to PP/EOC blend led to improvements in both impact strength and fracture energy of SENT tests because of the enhanced compatibility of the blend, which resulted from reduced EOC particle size and improved interfacial adhesion, and the decreased crystallinity of PP. The incorporation of clay to PP/EOC/EOC-g-MA blend caused a further increase of the toughness, owing to the greater decrease in the size of elastomer particles, to the presence of clay tactoids inside the elastomer phase and presumably to debonding of clay layers during the low-speed SENT tests. The results of microscopic observations showed that the main toughening mechanism in PP/EOC/EOC-g-MA blend and PP/EOC/EOC-g-MA/clay nanocomposite is crazing. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

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