Investigation of tensile properties of tensile properties of polypropylene/ graphene/ nano clay nanocomposits applying the response surface methodology

In this study, using design of experiments, the effect of the total weight percentage of graphene nanosheets and nano clay and their weight ratio and weight percentage of compatibilizer (PPg-MA) on the tensile properties of polypropylene/ graphene/ nano clay/ PP-g-MA nanocomposites were investigated. Design of experiments and analysis of experimental data with Minitab 16 software and response surface methodology were carried out. Making nanocomposites, based on the melt mixing was performed. All combinations and pure states materials were mixed together in a co-rotating twin-screw extruder and then injection molded into standard tensile test samples. The tensile properties of all samples including tensile strength, Young's modulus and elongation at break was studied experimentally. Statistical models provided by response surface methodology had good agreement with experimental findings. Statistical analysis showed that with increasing the percentage of nanoparticles, tensile strength and elongation at break of nanocomposites reduced. Also increasing the percentage of nanoparticles increase the stiffness of nanocomposites without compatibilizer, however, with the increasing amount of compatibilizer, reduced modulus. Compounds morphology by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was performed. Micrographes showed better dispersion of the particles in lower percentages.