Effect of concentration of Halloysite nanotubes on the Mechanical, Thermal and electrical properties of NBR/PP Elastomer nanocomposites

Harendra Kumar; Javed Ahmed Rizvi; Deepak Srivastava

Abstract

Preparation of nanocomposites from immiscible polymer blends system has been investigated in this work. Natural clay named halloysite nanotubes are incorporated in the immiscible blend system using melt mixing process to prepare halloysite based nanocomposites comprising of PP/NBR blend system. FTIR studies have been carried out to establish the structure properties relationship. Nanocomposites are characterized by SEM for morphological studies. The thermal stability of nanocomposites has been evaluated by TGA and it found that maximum thermal stability occurs at 3 wt% of HNTs in polymer matrix. Mechanical Properties results have demonstrated maximum tensile strength and hardness at 3wt% loading of HNTs. The above investigation reveals that HNT act as a reinforcing with nucleating agent in the present investigated blend system. Electrical properties results depict that there is appreciable enhancement in arc resistance and dielectric strength as the content of HNT is increased in the blend system.Keywords: Nanocomposites, tensile strength, dielectric, PP, SEM.