THE EFFECT OF CALCIUM CARBONATE AT LOW VOLUME FRACTIONS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYPROPYLENE/CALCIUM CARBONATE NANOCOMPOSITES

¹Chinedum Ogonna Mgbemena, ²Nelson Obinna Ubani, ³Chika Edith Mgbemena

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike

³ Department of Industrial/Production Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

Email: edumgbemena@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Polypropylene/Calcium Carbonate nanocomposites were prepared by melt compounding of the Polymer material and melt mixing with the Calcium carbonate nano-fillers at filler loadings of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%.The samples evaluated were the stearic acid coated and uncoated nano-fillers. The results of the study showed that the addition of CaCO₃ nano-filler have resulted in the improvement of the mechanical properties of the Homo Polypropylene, mainly the Young Modulus. The tensile strength and elongation at break of Polypropylene was slightly reduced with the incorporation of the nano-filler. The Young Modulus increased for Calcium carbonate volume fractions for both the coated and the uncoated grades for filler concentrations up to 5%.Stearic acid coated fillers showed the highest Improvement in the above tensile properties at this low volume fraction .It is important to note that the maximum tensile strength occurred at 5% Volume fraction and as the volume fractions increased both the Tensile strength and elongation decreased and in contrast, the Young Modulus increased.