Morphology and performance of silane functionalized organoclay in polypropylene matrix

In this work the morphology and performance of silane functionalized organoclay in PP matrix was investigated. For this purpose MMT/Silane intercalates were prepared using the grafting method. First nanofillers were dispersed in a mixture of ethanol/water solution, and then different silanes were added into the mixture and sheared for 8h at 80°C in a Thermomix mixer. The product was dried and pulverized. Different types of polypropylene were used to prepare the nanocomposites with silane, and a 1 mm nanocomposite film was produced with hot press at 210°C for 7 minutes. XRD, FTIR and TEM were used to characterize the modified and neat samples. The XRD results indicated that the MMT:APS (1:1) ratio showed the highest increase in d- spacing for MMT, registering an increase of 0.95nm (from 1.21 nm to 2.16 nm) which suggest that this is the ideal ratio of MMT:APS combination for improvement of PP mechanical properties. New peaks seen in MMT:APS at 2928 cm^-1 and small hump at 2852 cm^-1 probably confirm the presence of the silane on the surface which implies that an effective modification has taken place. And, a change in the region of the stretching band indicates that a reaction of the silanol groups of the montmorillonite and trimethoxysilane occurred. The results also showed that the higher the ratio of MMT:APS increases, the better is the dispersion of the clay which may have implications in improvement of mechanical properties.