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| Volume 3, Issue 02 - 2007 |
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| 2 |
Structure-properties relationships of iPP based nanocomposites filled with spherical calcium carbonate nanoparticles |
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| Pages 46-54 |
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| MAURIZIO AVELLA, SIMONA COSCO, MARIA LAURA DI LORENZO, EMILIA DI PACE,
MARIA EMANUELA ERRICO*, GENNARO GENTILE
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| Instituto di Chimica e Tecnologia dei Polimeri (ICTP)-CNR
Comprensorio Olivetti, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), ITALY
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| Received 3 May 2007 ; accepted 25 June 2007 |
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| Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) based nanocomposites filled with calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CaCO3) were prepared by melt mixing and their structure-properties relationships were studied. Spherical CaCO3 coated with two different coating agents, polypropylene-maleic anhydride graft copolymer (iPP-g-MA) and fatty acids (FA), as nanoreinforced phases (C-PPMA and C-FA, respectively) were tested. The influence of nanoparticles surface treatment on the polymer/nanofillers interfacial adhesion and on the final materials properties was also investigated. The morphological analysis has allowed defining two types of coating agents: a non-interacting agent (FA) and a coupling agent (iPP-g-MA), able to induce different iPP/nanofiller adhesion degrees. Moreover Young's modulus increases almost linearly with C-PPMA nanoparticles while a slighter improvement was recorded for iPP/C-FA nanocomposites. The iPP thermal stability is also improved by the presence of nanoparticles. Finally, CaCO3 drastically reduces the iPP permeability to both oxygen and carbon dioxide. |
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