Improvement of mechanical, morphological and thermal properties on PP-enriched graphene oxide/PP-g-MA/EPDM blend compatibilized: PP-g-MA compatibilizer and graphene oxide nanofiller role

One of the modern methods of mixing polymers that causes the properties of nanocomposites to be significantly improved is the incorporation of nanofillers into the matrix. In this study, polypropylene (PP) was reinforced using graphene oxide and then PP-g-MA compatibilizer was used for better dispersion of graphene oxide and compatibility between polypropylene and ethylene-propylene rubber (EPDM). The purpose of this study is to achieve the optimum blend composition. In this regard, the mechanical, rheological and morphological properties of samples using DMTA, TGA and DSC were examined and their theory was analyzed. The results showed that the mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elongation at break and young's modulus are significantly improved by increasing the concentration of graphene oxide in the presence of PP-g-MA compatibilizer. SEM images also illustrated that with the increasing concentration of nanofillers in the blend matrix, the particle size of the dispersed phase of EPDM decreases. In addition, TEM images also showed the presence of PP-g-MA compatibilizer causing better dispersion of graphene oxide in GO-PP/ PP-g-MA/EPDM nanocomposites.