Design, Development and Characterization of Polypropylene Clay Nanocomposites
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Design, Development and Characterization of Polypropylene Clay Nanocomposites A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Muthukumaraswamy Pannirselvam M.E., M.S. School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering RMIT University March, 2008 DECLARATION I, Muthukumaraswamy Pannirselvam certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award. The contents of the thesis are the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program, at the School of Civil, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Muthukumaraswamy Pannirselvam 27 – 03 – 2008 II DEDICATION To my mother Vimala, may your roses always bloom fragrance from the heavens. To my wife Sangeeta, my best friend, for your love, appreciation, encouragement and emotional support, and To my daughter Rohitaa (Chaaru), for your ever green cherubic smile which energizes me instantly. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank Prof. Sati Bhattacharya for his belief in me and his patience, most valuable guidance, assistance, suggestions and time during the course of this research project. Secondly, I would like to extend my thanks to Prof. Bob Shanks for sharing his vast knowledge and for his helpful instructions, supervision, advice, comments, enthusiasm, and for his open door policy to all students. My verbal appreciation can hardly express my gratitude to Dr. Rahul Gupta, whose suggestions and comments were invaluable. My thanks to Ms. Sharon Taylor who is always there to guide, support and assist all post graduate students. I owe my special thanks to Andrew Chryss for introducing me to the practical aspects of rheology, and for his ever smiling face irrespective of any number of questions being asked. Many thanks are extended to Dr. Margaret Jollands, Frank Antolasic, Mike Allan, Dr. Mohammad Al Kobaisi, Karl Lang, Dr. Ivan Ivanov, Peter Laming, Nadia Zhartack, Susan Holden, Dr. Antonietta Genovese, Dr. Wasantha Gunaratne, Phillip Francis, Ashfaqar Rahaman, Daniel Kaminski, Dr. Maggie Chen, for their help and guidance in the application of various aspects of this research work described in this thesis. My sincere appreciation is expressed to Prof. Hyoung Choi and his graduate student Hyoung Park for their technical support in TEM studies of nanocomposite films. I would like to thank Sharon Yap, Bonnie Ly, Yoslin Tang, Jo An, Ertun Mustafa, Artur Ferreira, Marlyne Mannays, Joshua, Suzette, Chau Nguyen and Farhad Younus for their support. I would like to thank my fellow post graduate students at RMIT University – Murali Reddy, Roya Khalil, Jamuna Sivathasan, Ashish Shah, Harisingh Paramar, Tim Fitton, Khokan Majumdar and Ranjit Prasad. IV I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and others who directly and indirectly supported me to reach this point. I would like to thank the Head of discipline Dr. Swinbourne, administration personnel at Carlton and Swanston Library, Scholarship office, and Department of Civil, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering in RMIT University. I would like to thank my work supervisors, research leaders, colleagues with whom I worked during my course, research, internship and industrial training. I would like to express my special thanks from the bottom of my heart to my father Pannirselvam Thirumeni for his vision and hardwork which motivated me, and thanks to my sister Saranya Murugan, my brother in law Murugan Saminathan, my niece Riddhi Murugan, and rest of my family for their love and moral support. I would like to thank all my teachers (professors, readers, lecturers, laboratory instructors, school teachers) and pay them my respects with humble obeisance. Thank you to my guru Sri Sri Raghavendra Swamigal of Mantralayam. V PUBLICATIONS ARISING FROM THIS WORK Conference proceedings 1. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Linear Viscoelastic Properties of Polypropylene – Polyether Treated Clay Nanocomposites", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 119, International conference of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN), Melbourne (2008) 2. Pannirselvam, M., Chryss, A., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Thermal, Mechanical, and Gas Barrier Properties of Polypropylene – Polyether Treated Clay Nanocomposites", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 120, International conference of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN), Melbourne (2008) 3. Pannirselvam, M., Ivanov, I., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., “Composition and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Montmorillonite Nanocomposites", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 0235,Chemeca, Melbourne (2007) 4. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N., Shanks, R.A., "Synthesis of a Novel Compatibilizer for Polypropylene Clay Nanocomposites", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 0040,Chemeca, Melbourne (2007) 5. Pannirselvam, M., Chryss, A., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Rheology of Polypropylene – Polyether Treated Clay Nanocomposite", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 141, International conference on Composite structures (ICCS), Melbourne (2007) 6. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., " Surfactant Intercalated Clay Nanocomposites Compatibilized using Polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride ", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: 142, International conference on Composite structures (ICCS), Melbourne (2007) 7. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Polypropylene Clay Nanocomposites prepared with Polyether Intercalated Clay ", In Proc. [CD- ROM], Paper No: 087,Polymer Processing Society (PPS-23), Brazil (2007) 8. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks,R.A., "Intercalation of Montmorillonite by Interlayer Adsorption and Complex Formation", In Proc. [CD- ROM], Paper No: 0076, International Conference of Advanced Materials and Processing (ICAMP-4), New Zealand (2006) VI 9. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Synthesis of Polypropylene - graft – Polyoxyalkyleneamine Compatibilizer for formation of Layered Clay Nanocomposites", In Proc. [CD-ROM], Paper No: , 132, International Conference of Advanced Materials and Processing (ICAMP-4), New Zealand (2006) Journal papers 1. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Intercalation of Montmorillonite by Interlayer Adsorption and complex formation, Advanced Materials Research, Vol 30, pp 295-298 (2007) 2. Pannirselvam, M., Jollands, M.C., Genovese, A. and Bhattacharya, S.N., "Oxygen Barrier Properties of Polypropylene-Polyether Treated Clay Nanocomposites, eXpress Polymers letters (Reference No. EPL – 00534)(accepted and ready to be published) 3. Pannirselvam, M., Chryss, A., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Rheology of Polypropylene – Polyether Treated Clay Nanocomposite", J Composite structures (2008) (accepted) 4. Pannirselvam, M., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A.," Surfactant Intercalated Clay Nanocomposites Compatibilized using Polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride", J Composite structures (2008) (accepted) 5. Pannirselvam, M., Antolasic, F., Park, J.H., Choi, J.H., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N., Shanks, R.A., "Effects of Polyether Treated Clay on Structural, Thermal, and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Nanocomposites", Polym Eng. Sci (to be submitted) 6. Pannirselvam, M., Ashfaqar, M., Chryss, A., Gupta, R.K., Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Effect of Polyether Treated Clay on the Rheological Properties of Polypropylene Nanocomposite", Polymer (to be submitted) 7. Pannirselvam, M., Jollands, M.C., Gupta, R.K.,Bhattacharya, S.N. and Shanks, R.A., "Preparation and Characterization of Polypropylene - Polyether Clay Nanocomposite", Polym Eng. Sci (in preparation) VII TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………..IV PUBLICATIONS ………………………………………………………………………. VI LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………XIII LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………..XVI ABBREVIATIONS, GLOSSARY, SYMBOLS……………………….…………….XVII ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..XX CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OBJECTIVES.........1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Overview of thesis chapters....................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW ........................8 2.1 Polypropylene............................................................................................................ 8 2.1.1 Crystal structure of PP.......................................................................................................9 2.1.1.1 Polymorphism........................................................................................................................9 2.1.1.1.1 Alpha form of isotactic PP ................................................................................................9 2.1.1.1.2 Beta form of isotactic PP ................................................................................................10 2.1.1.1.3 Gamma form of isotactic PP...........................................................................................10 2.1.2 Effect of morphology on characteristics of PP................................................................11