Near Infrared Investigation of Polypropylene–Clay Nanocomposites for Further Quality Control Purposes—Opportunities and Limitations

Materials

Andreas Witschnigg¹  Stephan Laske¹  Clemens Holzer¹  Raj Patel²  Atif Khan²  Hadj Benkreira²  Phil Coates² 

[1] Department of Polymer Engineering and Science, Chair of Polymer Processing, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Otto Gloeckel Strasse 2, Leoben 8700, Austria; E-Mails:;School of Engineering, Design and Technology, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK; E-Mails:

关键词: NIR spectroscopy;    quality control;    polypropylene nanocomposites;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma8095272

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Polymer nanocomposites are usually characterized using various methods, such as small angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) or transmission electron microscopy, to gain insights into the morphology of the material. The disadvantages of these common characterization methods are that they are expensive and time consuming in terms of sample preparation and testing. In this work, near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) spectroscopy is used to characterize nanocomposites produced using a unique twin-screw mini-mixer, which is able to replicate, at ~25 g scale, the same mixing quality as in larger scale twin screw extruders. We correlated the results of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, G′ and G″ from rotational rheology, Young’s modulus, and tensile strength with those of NIR spectroscopy. Our work has demonstrated that NIR-technology is suitable for quantitative characterization of such properties. Furthermore, the results are very promising regarding the fact that the NIR probe can be installed in a nanocomposite-processing twin screw extruder to measure inline and in real time, and could be used to help optimize the compounding process for increased quality, consistency, and enhanced product properties.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.