A dynamic-mechanical study of the role of succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene as interfacial modifier in polypropylene/tale composites.: Effect of grafting degree

Present work is devoted to the changes produced in the interfacial interactions caused by an interfacial agent consisting in succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene acting into a polypropylene/talc composite as revealed by dynamic-mechanical spectrometry. The interfacial agents used here were previously obtained in our laboratories by means of a two step process of chemical modification in the melt of a by-product (atactic polypropylene) from industrial polymerization reactors, and consist in four different additives with 1-4% w/w of grafting degree expressed as succinic equivalent. In this way, the variations of interfacial activity caused by replacing a little amount of polypropylene matrix in the composite by the succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene can be clearly detected. Furthermore, a correlation between parameters from the microscopical scale such as the obtained by DMA and other from the macroscopic such as mechanical properties appears to emerge. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.