Preparation of Polypropylene-grafted Graphene and its application on Polypropylene/Graphene Nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract In the past few years, graphene-based nanocomposites are a hot topic in the fields of materials and chemistry owing to their unique features. We describe a facile melt blending method for preparing polypropylene/graphene nanocomposites in this article. The first stage involved grafting graphene onto chlorinated PP using the Friedel-Crafts reaction. The second stage involved the use of the resulting PP grafted graphene (PPG) as fillers in a melt blend with commercial PP. After being grafted with an organic PP chain, graphene becomes lipophilic; consequently, the PPG can be dispersed well within the PP matrix while retaining excellent interface adhesion. As a result, the thermostability, mechanical performance, and electrical conductivity of PP were significantly improved through the addition of PPG fillers. Additionally, with 10 wt% of PPG fillers (equivalent to 5 wt% graphenes), the conductivity approaches 6.8 Sm-1. As a result of this research, a new method for producing high-performance PP has been developed.