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150334

Improving the Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Polyolefins Using Recycled Low-Density Polyethylene and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Nano chemistry

Abstract

Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) has gained considerable attention because of having a combination of rubbery and thermoplastic properties and ease of production. Their excellent weather resistance, low density, and relatively low cost make them attractive materials for the automotive, electrical, footwear industries and membranes for water treatment. Their main shortcomings are poor mechanical properties, especially at low temperatures because of the opposing trends of stiffness and toughness. In this paper, recycled low density polyethylene (RLDPE) was integrated with ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) incorporating very low content of carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-COOH) to improve the mechanical properties of the produced TPO nanocomposite. TPO has been prepared through the combination of 40, 50, and 60 wt.% RLDPE and 40, 50, and 60 wt.% EBDM. The improved TPO composition was then reinforced with 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt.% MWCNTs-COOH to produce TPO nanocomposites. The compounding of TPO and its nanocomposites was done by melt mixing followed by heat pressing. Mechanical and thermal behaviors of the TPO nanocomposites were investigated. Tensile tests showed that the TOP (60-40) is the best improved concentration; the storage modulus of nanocomposites was enhanced by increasing MWCNTs-COOH concentration. In addition, modulus, stress/strain and toughness of TPO were enhanced by adding 0.5 wt.% MWCNTs-COOH. Thus, MWCNTs-COOH reinforced TPO due to not only its large aspect ratios but also due to its interaction with both the TOP matrix and the combatibilizer. The results of microstructural investigations of the prepared TPO nanocomposite using FTIR and TGA confirmed the interaction between MWCNTs-COOH and TPO matrix

DOI

10.21608/ejchem.2021.62554.3341

Keywords

Thermoplastic Polyolefin, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), Nanocomposites, carbon nanotubes

Authors

First Name

Mona

Last Name

Ahmed

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Petroleum Applications Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

Email

mona_chemist17@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Elshafie

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Petroleum applications department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI), Cairo, Egypt.

Email

mohamedepri@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Usama

Last Name

Kandil

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Petroleum Applications Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

Email

alfa_olefins@yahoo.com

City

Nasr City, Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-2918-8444

First Name

Mahmoud

Last Name

Taha

MiddleName

Reda

Affiliation

Department of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA

Email

mrtaha@unm.edu

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-3707-9336

Volume

64

Article Issue

5

Related Issue

23661

Issue Date

2021-05-01

Receive Date

2021-02-10

Publish Date

2021-02-21

Page Start

2,517

Page End

2,523

Print ISSN

0449-2285

Online ISSN

2357-0245

Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_150334.html

Detail API

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=150334

Order

28

Type

Review Articles

Type Code

444

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry

Publication Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Improving the Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Polyolefins Using Recycled Low-Density Polyethylene and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023