Polystyrene/Polyolefin Elastomer Blends Loaded with Halloysite Nanotubes : Morphological, Mechanical, and Gas Barrier Properties

Title data

Tayouri, Mohammad Iman ; Estaji, Sara ; Mousavi, Seyed Rasoul ; Yazdanbakhsh, Amirhosein ; Nouranian, Sasan ; Ruckdäschel, Holger ; Khonakdar, Hossein Ali:
Polystyrene/Polyolefin Elastomer Blends Loaded with Halloysite Nanotubes : Morphological, Mechanical, and Gas Barrier Properties.
In: Macromolecular Materials and Engineering. Vol. 308 (2023) Issue 9 . - 2300080.
ISSN 1439-2054
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/mame.202300080

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Abstract in another language

Abstract Herein, a simple melt-blending method is utilized to disperse of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) in polystyrene/polyolefin elastomer (PS/POE) blends. Based on morphological studies, the PS/POE/HNT nanocomposite containing up to 3 phr HNTs shows excellent nanofiller dispersion, while those filled with 5 phr HNTs exhibit nanofiller aggregation. To overcome the nanofiller aggregation issue, the polypropylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) compatibilizer is added to the PS/POE/HNT nanocomposite, which results in improved mechanical properties for the nanocomposite sheets. Furthermore, the addition of compatibilized HNTs to the PS/POE blends leads to decreased O₂ and N₂ gas permeabilities. Besides, incorporating POE, HNTs, and PP-g-MA leads to a decrease in water vapor transmission of PS. In the end, the experimentally-determined mechanical properties and gas permeabilities of the nanocomposite sheets are compared to those predicted by prevalent theoretical models, revealing a good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results. Molecular-dynamics simulations are also carried out to calculate the gas diffusion coefficients in the different sheets to further support the experimental findings in this study. Overall, the PS/POE/HNT/PP-g-MA nanocomposite sheets fabricated in this work demonstrate excellent mechanical and gas barrier properties; and hence, can be used as candidate packaging materials. However, the strength of the resulting PS/POE blend may be inferior to that of the virgin PS.