Study of surface morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of composite polyamide 6- gamma alumina modified with ethylene octin copolymer graft maleic anhydride

Polyamides are engineering plastics that have many applications in different industries. Using mineral fillers، the thermal and mechanical properties of these plastics can be improved. This research has been conducted in order to improve the properties of polyamide. In this paper، Polyamide 6-γ-Al2O3 modified with ethylene octene copolymer and grafted by maleic anhydride was synthesized using a double-screw extruder. The weight percents of alumina powder were considered to be 5، 10 and 15%. The mechanical and thermal properties as well as the morphology of the composite samples were examined. It was observed that the tensile strength and impact resistance of polyamide 6-gamma-alumina are improved using the gamma-alumina and EOC-g-MAH، respectively. The study of morphology of the composite samples with scanning electron microscope (SEM) also showed that there exists a favorable distribution of alumina particles in the polyamide matrix so that this homogeneity was considered to be due to the appropriate mixing stage which was conducted within the double-screw extruder with the application of high shear stresses. Thermal properties of the composite samples were investigated using TGA thermal analysis and the results showed that the resistance and thermal degradation of the samples increase with an increase in the amount of alumina used.