Rheological and mechanical properties of automobile polypropylene/silica (PP/SiO2) nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract The research of automotive materials is mainly focused on the lightweight and low pollution. Polypropylene (PP) has become the hot spot of automobile materials due to its low cost, low density, and low pollution. However, it is necessary to modify PP due to the poor toughness, high shrinkage and poor weather resistance. The requirements for automotive PP are high toughness, high strength, high impact resistance and high melt flowability. In this paper, PP/SiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by a mixing machine and a twin-screw extruder. The effects of SiO2 particles contents on the rheological and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were investigated. The results show that SiO2 spheres play a lubricating role in the matrix, which improves the processability of PP without sacrificing its mechanical properties.