pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S05 - Fibers, Films and Foams
Oral Presentation
 
 

Controlled foam processing and cell structure development of gamma irradiated polypropylene/elastomer blends

GHOSH ANUP KUMAR (1)*, Dutta Anindya (2), Singh Srishti (3)

(1) Head, Centre for polymer sciece & engineering, Indian Institute of Technology - NEW DELHI - India, (2) Research Scholar - Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi - India, (3) Indian Institute of Technology - New Delhi - India

Currently a high demand in automotive industries motivated to make a comparative study between the gamma irradiated polypropylene/elastomer blends along with the effect of compositional variation and processing parameter dependence on foamability of polypropylene. The effects of gamma irradiation of blends directed towards the crosslinking of elastomer (Vamac Ultra IP) approach using gamma irradiation, prior to the preparation of blends with polypropylene as matrix on final foam morphology of different blends has been described. The introduction of crosslinked elastomer into the polypropylene matrix improved the foamability of polypropylene. Foaming was done in a high pressure autoclave at three different temperatures using supercritical CO2 as a blowing agent. The x-ray diffraction, tensile, surface morphological and density properties of blends and their foams were studied by means of WAXD, universal testing machine, SEM (both secondary electron and back scattered electron detectors) and water displacement method respectively. The density of foamed blends decreased with increasing elastomer content, especially with foams achieved at higher foaming temperature. With the increase in elastomer content, domain size of crosslinked elastomer increased in blends and thus led to the bigger cells during foaming process, in spite of having its high gas entrapment capacity for its interconnected chains. Cell size of foams increased with increasing foaming temperature. Foams obtained at 145 °C showed good balance of microcellular structure along with higher cell density. Specific tensile properties of foams showed a promising improvement and can be correlated with the foam morphology.