Polypropylene/graphene nanosheet nanocomposites by in situ polymerization: Synthesis, characterization and fundamental properties

By M. A. Milani, Darío M. González, R. Quijada, N. R. Basso, M. Cerrada, D. Azambuja, G. Galland. 2013

223 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This study investigates the synthesis, characterization and properties of isotactic polypropylene/graphene nanosheet nanocomposites (iPP/GNS). These nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization using the metallocene complex rac- Me 2 Si(Ind) 2 ZrCl 2 and methylaluminoxane (MAO) as cocatalyst. Homogeneous graphene nanosheet dispersions within the polymeric matrix were observed by TEM and XRD. The molecular characteristics of iPP, such as molecular weight, polydispersity and tacticity, were not affected by the presence of nanoparticles. The thermal properties investigated by DSC and TGA showed that graphene nanosheets significantly improved the matrix, increasing the crystallization and the degradation temperatures. From a mechanical perspective, there was an excellent balance between a significant increase in Young’s modulus and a slight reduction in the elongation at break. The reinforcing effect of graphene incorporation was confirmed by the increase of the storage modulus with nanosheet content. An enhancement of dimensional stability was also detected, and deformability was significantly smaller in the nanocomposites than in the homopolymer. Impedance measurements showed that the electrical conductivity increased by a factor of 10 8 compared to that of neat iPP.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Polymers and Plastics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/60899d3cdccc9826c91adc6e7ae53c421b7a8eb1

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In Materials Chemistry

1. Yang Xiang
2. Jie Yang
3. S. Kitipornchai
4. Hui‐Shen Shen
5. F. Lin
6. Helong Wu
7. Kim-Meow Liew
8. Z. Lei

In Polymers and Plastics

1. Yang Xiang
2. Hui‐Shen Shen
3. F. Lin
4. T. Sathishkumar
5. Jie Yang
6. R. Rajasekar
7. S. Kitipornchai
8. Helong Wu

Citations in the corpus

• Thermal buckling and postbuckling of functionally graded graphene nanocomposite plates (2017, background): “4 ofillers are prone to agglomerate and consequently deteriorates the resulting mechanical properties of nanocomposites [13-15].”
• Nonlinear vibration of functionally graded graphene-reinforced composite laminated beams resting on elastic foundations in thermal environments (2017, background): “5–20% by weight) [19,20] and more graphene fillers in the composites can actually lead to the deterioration of the mechanical properties of the composites [21].”
• Graphene and modified graphene-based polymer nanocomposites – A review (2014, methodology): “Milani et al.(29) prepared isotactic polypropylene/graphene nanosheet nanocomposites (iPP/GNS) by in situ polymerisation in the presence of the catalyst metallocene complex rac-Me2Si(Ind)2ZrCl2 and the co-catalyst methylaluminoxane (MAO).”