Study on Effects of Nanosilica Sand Addition on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene (PP)

• Main Author: Yasaa, Dzul Khairee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2011
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8637/1/2011%20-%20Study%20on%20effects%20of%20nanosilica%20sand%20addition%20on%20physical%20and%20mechanical%20properties%20os%20poly.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8637/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Problem that arises for attention is polymer degradation issue. Polymer degradation is a change in the properties - tensile strength, colour, shape - of a polymer or polymer based product under the influence of one or more environmental factors. These changes are usually undesirable, such as changes during use, cracking and depolymerisation of products or, more rarely, desirable, as in biodegradation or deliberately lowering the molecular weight of a polymer for recycling. It was found that the addition of nanoparticles in polypropylene will increase the performance of mechanical properties of the composites. The improvement mechanical and physical properties of PP will improve all plastic products in industry such as bottle, dustbin, pipe, jug and chair. Objective of this project is to study on effects of nanosilica sand addition on physical and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP). One of the physical properties that need to be studied is density and the mechanical properties are tensile strength, Young's modulus and flexural strength. To examinate the applicability of the study, the silica sand nanoparticles with average particle size of less than lOOnm was produced by several stages of ball mill and heating combinations. PP matrix composites with 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% of silica sand nanoparticles were developed. The silica sand will be grounded to nanoparticles by using ball mill with zirconium ball as grinding media. The mixing of nanosilica sand with PP was carried using internal mixer. After mixing the granular shape of the mixed particles were produced using granular machine. The resultant particles were moulded into dog-bone-shaped tensile bars (ASTM D638-97) with an injection molding machine. Tensile and densities properties of the composites were measured. Based on the result obtained, there was an increasing trend in Young modulus. The tensile strength decreased. An increasing trend of density also was obtained with the increasing content of silica sand nanoparticles in PP. However an improvement in flexural strength was observed. From experimental values, PP matrix with 20% addition of nanosilica could be proposed as the optimum mixture ratio. In this project, although pure PP recorded the highest tensile strength value, common experimental trend in polymer nanocomposites can be observed from 5% to 20% particle addition. The effects of silica sand nanoparticles in PP increased its density and flexural strength but slightly decreased its tensile strength.