:: Advanced Composites Letters on-line ABSTRACTS ::

Volume 11, Issue 6, 2002

Tensile properties of polypropylene filled with nanoscale calcium carbonate particles

Ming Qiu ZHANG^{1, 2*}, Min Zhi RONG^{1, 2}, Shun Long PAN^{1,

2}, Klaus FRIEDRICH³

¹Materials Science Institute, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China
²Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China
³Institute for Composite Materials (IVW) Ltd, University of Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed

(Received 1/02; accepted 11/02)

ABSTRACT

To bring the positive effect of nanoscale calcium carbonate into play, macromolecular chains were introduced onto the particles by irradiation grafting polymerisation so that the hydrophobicity of the particles was increased and the loosen agglomerates became stronger. Tensile testing results demonstrated that polypropylene composites incorporated with the grafted nano-CaCO3 particles exhibited improved stiffness, strength and toughness at low filler content when proper grafting polymers are introduced. Species of grafting polymers adhered to the nanoparticles is an important factor affecting the modification effect of the matrix polymer. Therefore, composites performance can be purposely tailored accordingly.

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