Abstract:
Three grades of polypropylene (PP) with different melt viscosities and three types of organomodified montmorillonite (MMT) clays with varied interlayer spacings were used to prepare PP/organoclay nanocomposites in the presence of maleated PP(MAPP). Taguchi design of experiments (DoE) was employed as an effective engineering statistical method to investigate the enhancement of mechanical properties of nanocomposites in relation to the selected materials. Individual optimum factors to promote each of tensile, flexural and impact properties were then determined using a Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA). PP grade was found to be the most significant factor to improve the overall mechanical properties with the lowest PP viscosity demonstrating the best performance. Clay content appeared to play the second important role for the enhancement of tensile and flexural properties. Although clay type and MAPP content were determined as two non-significant factors for the tensile and flexural properties, MAPP content greatly influenced the impact strengths of nanocomposites.