Coincorporation of Nano-Silica and Nano-Calcium Carbonate in Polypropylene

In this study, various polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending method. The effects of different spherical nanofillers, such as 50 nm CaCO3 and 20 nm SiO2, on the linear viscoelastic property, crystallization behavior, morphology and mechanical property of the resulting PP nanocomposites were examined. Rheological study indicated that wcoincorporation of nano-SiO2 and nano-CaCO3 favored the uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in the PP matrix. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and polarizing optical microscopy (POM) studies revealed that the coincorporation of SiO2 and CaCO3 nanoparticles could effectively improve PP crystallizability, which gave rise to a lower supercooling temperature (Delta T), a shorter crystallization half-life (t(1/2)) and a smaller spherulite size in comparison with those nanocomposites incorporating only one type of CaCO3 or SiO2 nanoparticles. The mechanical analysis results also showed that addition of two types of nanoparticles into PP matrix gave rise to enhanced performance than the nanocomposites containing CaCO3 or SiO2 individually. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121:3007-3013, 2011