Polymers and Polymer Composites

TOUGHENING OF POLYPROPYLENE HIGHLY FILLED WITH ALUMINIUM HYDROXIDE

February 1, 2005 By: Zhanpai Su; Pingkai Jiang; Qiang Li; Ping Wei; Yong Zhang Research article

Title: TOUGHENING OF POLYPROPYLENE HIGHLY FILLED WITH ALUMINIUM HYDROXIDE
Page Range: p.139-150
Author(s): Zhanpai Su; Pingkai Jiang; Qiang Li; Ping Wei; Yong Zhang
File size: 304K
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Journal: Polymers and Polymer Composites
Issue Year: ppc
Volume: 13
Issue No: No. 2

Abstract
The flame retardant and mechanical properties of rubber-modified, aluminium hydroxide filled PP were studied, together with its morphology. The PP was toughened with EPDM and zinc neutralised sulphated EPDM ionomer. The PP matrix, when high filled with aluminium hydroxide particles can achieve an adequate level of flame retardancy, but there is a decrease in the mechanical properties due to an inadequate adhesion between the aluminium hydroxide particles and the PP matrix, and also the tendency for the filler to agglomerate. By using zinc neutralised sulphated EPDM ionomer instead of EPDM the tensile properties were shown to improve with only a slight decrease in toughness, due to improvements in the interfacial adhesion between modifier and matrix. SEM micrographs showed that the rubber phase was dispersed in the continuous PP matrix, and that most aluminium hydroxide particles were uniformly distributed in the rubbery phase, and that much finer rubbery domains were found in the PP/Zn-S-EPDM/aluminium hydroxide composites. 28 refs.


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