The influence of spherical silica prepared by sol-gel method on mechanical properties of polypropylene-SiO2 composite
Paulina Jakubowska, Agnieszka Martyla, Robert Przekop, Bogna Sztorch, Maciej Kopczyk, Monika Osinska-Broniarz, Łukasz Majchrzycki
Quarterly No. 1, 2016 pages 47-51
DOI:
keywords: sol-gel, polypropylene, Stöber SiO2, composite, mechanical properties
abstract In the present paper the spherical silica material Innosilica was proposed to be used as filler for a composite with polypropylene. The spherical silica synthesis was based on a modified Stöber method. The aim of the study was to obtain a composite of better properties than those of pure polypropylene. The composite system with 1, 5, 10% of silica fillers were used. The characteristics of the obtained systems were defined by scanning microscopy. A universal fatigue testing machine Zwick Roell Z020 was employed to determine the tensile properties of the input material and composites under static extension and to the test of flexure resistance of the composites. The impact test with a composite notch and input material was determined using an Instron pendulum hammer type and the hardness property was measured with Shore hardness tester with a sharp conic indenter made by Zwick. As the reference material unmodified polypropylene and it’s composite with market silica - Aerosil 200 were used. The results of our researches indicate that the presence of the silica fillers improved the polypropylene properties. Parameters change depending on the content of the fillers. Innosilica allowed to obtain better results than the commercial silica. The study showed that the mechanical properties of silica-filled polypropylene material depend on weight ratio of the individual components of their constituent and on the geometry also. The filler of a spherical construction has a greater influence on the increase in composite stiffness than a filler of an irregular shape (Aerosil 200). This suggests that the higher structural homogeneity of composites PP/Innosilica exhibits the better mechanical properties.