Fabrication of hybrid composite including self-reinforced polypropylene and nanoclay

Self-reinforced polypropylene composites comprising of poly (propylene-ethylene) random copolymer matrix andpolypropylene fibers reinforcement were prepared and processed by film stacking. Also, for investigating the presence of nanoclay in these systems, hybrid composites (nanoclay/self-reinforced polypropylene) were prepared. The properties of the samples were evaluated by DMTA. In addition, the nanoclay dispersion was investigated by XRD patterns. It was demonstrated that by using random copolymer polypropylene as matrix instead of homo-polymer polypropylene (Tm=160 ) the processing window of this novel Self-reinforced PP composite could be significantly increased. The XRD pattern showed that desirable dispersion obtain up to 1.5 wt %. The DMTA results showed that the presence of fibers and nanoclay induce the minimum of loss factor (tan ) due to limiting the motion of chains