Rheological and thermal behavior of Tunisian clay reinforced recycled polypropylene composites

Abstract In the present paper, the influence of Tunisian clay filler on rheological and thermal behaviors of based recycled polypropylene ( RPP ) composites is investigated. RPP was mixed with 1, 3, 5, and 7 wt% of Tunisian clay particles using twin‐screw extruder. Maleic anhydride‐grafted polypropylene (PP‐g‐MA) was used as a compatibilizer. The morphological, structural, rheological, and thermal properties of raw and composite materials were analyzed. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that with the incorporation of clay and PP‐g‐MA, the particles were uniformly dispersed into RPP / PP ‐g‐ MA /clay composites. FTIR analysis showed that clay particles altered the shape of the observation band of RPP , indicating the presence of a chemical interaction between the clay and RPP matrix. The increased storage and loss moduli indicated that the Tunisian clay had a reinforcing effect on the RPP matrix. In differential scanning calorimetry analysis, crystallization temperature (Tc) increased with clay content, indicating that the addition of Tunisian organoclay accelerated the crystallization of the RPP matrix. The slight decrease in melting temperature (Tm) with increasing clay loading could be due to PP ‐g‐ MA , which affects the mobility of macromolecular chains.