Synergistic mechanical effects of calcite micro- and nanoparticles and β-nucleation in polypropylene copolymers

Gahleitner, Markus; Grein, Christelle; Bernreitner, Klaus

Synergistic mechanical effects of calcite micro- and nanoparticles and β-nucleation in polypropylene copolymers

2012

Gahleitner, Markus | Grein, Christelle | Bernreitner, Klaus

For improving the understanding of mechanical effects in micro- and nanocomposites based on polypropylene (PP) copolymers and precipitated or ground calcium carbonate (PCC or GCC), especially in the presence of significant portions of the β-modification, a set of compounds based on different PP grades and fillers with optional β-nucleation prepared by melt compounding was studied. A synergistic improvement of mechanical properties by a combination of calcite particles and β-nucleation was found for two of the investigated high-impact base polymers up to 20wt.% of nanofiller. While in the past research positive toughness effects were always limited to PP homopolymers with a moderate original impact strength and to particles of less than 100nm average diameter, the toughness of high impact ethylene–propylene impact copolymers could be increased by more than 150% even at sub-zero temperatures where the failure behaviour is determined by the disperse elastomer phase.

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