Silane grafting and moisture crosslinking of polypropylene

Abstract Peroxide initiated vinylsilane grafting of polypropylene in an intensive mixer, and the subsequent water crosslinking process were studied. Different concentrations of vinyl trimethoxysilane and dicumyl peroxide were used. The materials obtained after mixing in the rheocord were hot pressed at 190°C. The melt viscosity of the obtained sheets, the melting enthalpy and melting temperature (DSC, differential scanning calorimetry), the mechanical properties and the thermal decomposition behavior (TG, thermogravimetric analysis) were studied. No evidence of grafting during the rheocord processing was observed. Nevertheless, for the hot pressed sheets with concentrations higher than 4 phr of vinyl silane an important increase in the melt viscosity was observed. This increase agrees with the change observed in the mechanical properties, which show a maximum for the water crosslinked samples containing 4 phr of vinyl silane. The modulus increases by 39% at 90°C and 33% at 130°C, while the tensile strength rises by ∼22% at both temperatures. The silane grafted water crosslinked samples show a more stable thermal behavior than both the silane grafted samples and the unmodified polypropylene.