13-3-2017 Laboratory

Practice Report

Advanced Materials for

Manufacturing

Professor: Dr. Alan Sustaita Narvez

Student: Oscar Jess Escalera Rdz.

A00822060
 Index

Introduction

Objectives

Hypothesis

Basic background

Experimental methodology

Results and discussion

Conclusions

References
 Introduction
Nanoscience is the study, understanding and control of phenomena and
manipulation of material at the nanoscale, so Nanoscience is the world of
atoms, molecules, macromolecules, quantum dots, and macromolecular
assemblies. Since their discovery in 1991 by the Japanese scientist Sumio
Iijima, carbon nanotubes have been of great interest, both from a
fundamental point of view and for future applications. Different types of
carbon nanotubes can be produced in various ways.
Owing to their high mechanical and electrical properties, nanotubes are ideal
fillers for the generation of composites. Polymer nanotube nanocomposites
are synthesized after achieving suitable surface modifications of the
nanotubes using different synthesis methods like melt mixing, in situ
polymerization and solution mixing. The tensile modulus is generally
reported to be significantly enhanced on the incorporation of even small
amounts of nanotubes. Many other properties like electrical conductivity,
heat deflection temperature, etc, also increase on the addition of nanotubes
to the polymer.
This document is a report of a melt mixing processing of a composite of
Polypropylene-CNT composite with 1wt% of CNTs and polypropylene, also
the content of this document is focused in the experimentally development
of the new properties compared with a polymer composed of 100%
polypropylene.
 Objectives
Fabricate a composite with some percent (1%) of carbon nanotube with melt
mixing process using shear mixer, and compare with the pure polymer to
know how polymer changing its properties.

Hypothesis
The new composite material will have better characteristics about
mechanical properties, for example will result in an increasing of elasticity,
the incorporation of nanotubes significantly changes the stress strain
behavior of the composites.

Basic background

Polypropylene (PP)

Polypropylene is a type of thermoplastic polymer resin. It is a part of both

the average household and is in commercial and industrial applications. The
chemical designation is C3H6. One of the benefits of using this type of
plastic is that it can be useful in numerous applications including as a
structural plastic or as a fiber-type plastic.

Fig. 1 Polypropylene

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)

They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties
that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in
nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science.
They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are
efficient conductors of heat.

Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on
the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the
width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in
length.
There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs)
and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

Fig. 2 Carbon nanotube applications.

PP/CNTs Nanocomposites.
Nanocomposites are a class of materials in which one or more phases with
nanoscale dimensions (0-D, 1-D, and 2-D) are embedded in a metal,
ceramic, or polymer matrix.
There are three processing methods used for the preparation of PP
nanocomposites with nanotubes:
a) The solution method. Both elements are dispersed in an organic
solvent.
b) In situ polymerization. Both elements are mixed from the beginning
of polymerization.
c) Melt mixing. Nanoparticles are added in the molten polymer at
temperatures of 30-60 C above the melting point of the polymer.
Depending on the type of nanoparticles added, the mechanical, electrical,
optical, and thermal properties of polymer nanocomposites can be altered.
In the field of mechanical properties, the changes in modulus and strength
depend strongly on the degree of interaction between the particle and the
polymer.

Experimental Methodology

The laboratory practice consisted in some steps:

Fabricate the composites
To get the specimens (ASTM-D638)
Tensile test.

Create the composites.

Were fabricated three sheets, using compression molding, the first one
was neat PP polypropylene show in figure 4, the second one PP master
batches CNTs shows in figure 3, and the last one was a composite with
1% of concentration of carbon nanotube.

Figure 3 Figure 4
The first and second sheets were fabricated once we had the respective
material placed it into a preheated mold, and compressing molding with the
next parameters:

5 minutes for melting at 2 tons, after that

2 minutes for compacting at 25 tons Fig. 5
And cooling press at 25 tons until the mold scope the room temperature.
Fig. 6
 Fig.5 compressing molding Fig. 6 Cooling press
Were processed using a shear mixer the last one composite sheet, regarding
the next amounts:
Required weight of CNT= (175 gms)*(1%) = 1.75 gms.
Now, we know that Masterbatch has 20% of CNTs, then:
Masterbatch weight= (1.75g)/(20%)= 8.75 gms
 Figure 7 shear mixer
The process took around 15 minutes consisted in heating the chamber to
195 Celsius degrees, once we introduced the materials we increased the
mixing speed around 60 rpm, during the time the PP was melted and CNTs
were diffusing into the PP and the color changed from white (PP) to a new
black composite (PP+CNTs, figure 8) , after the 15 minutes we stopped the
machine and took the new composite off to place it into a mold, as well as
the torque of shear mixer established at 38.7 Nm (figure 9).

Figure 8 Figure 9
After that, using compression molding at 25 tons of pressure were
generated the sheet.
 hj
Figure 10

Once we finished we let the mold cool down and then proceeded to
unmold the polymer that had a square shape. When the new polymer
was ready the professor cut it into 5 ASTM-D638 specimens type 1
that have the shape and the dimensions (see next figure 11 type IV)
needed to make the experimental tension test.

Figure 11

Tensile Test
Once we had our specimens of PP+CNTs and the specimens of PP, we used a
tensile testing machine (see fig. 12) to make the test.

Fig. 12 Instron
The specifications of the experimental test were:
ASTM D638 Specimen Type 4
50mm/min Youngs module.
50 mm/min Fracture.
We have five specimens of PP polypropylene, and five of composite of PP
with 1% of carbon nanotube of concentration. We applied tensile over each
one and we can monitoring using a software.

Fig. 13 Specimens to test

We configured the machine and placed the specimen in the grips of the
machine to start the test, the machine was tensing the specimen and sopped
when it broke, we repeated the same procedure for the 9 specimens left and
saved the data given by the machine.
The table 1.1 shows the main parameters of the mechanical properties found
at the tensile test.
Table1.1

Examples of the curves traced for each sample (PP, PP+1%CNTs) for
one test of five.

PP sample PP+1% CNTs sample

Samples of PP+1% CNTs and PP after the tests,

Results and discussion

In accordance with the result at the table 1.1 we can see that the
modulus of elasticity average in PP+1%CNTs (688 MPa) is higher than
modulus of elasticity average to PP (607MPa) almost 12%, which
means the new composite increased its elasticity capacity, therefore is
more stiff.
The mean maximum stress for PP/MWCNTs is 17.46 MPa and for PP is
10.99 MPa around 37 %, this means that the new material increased
the resistance a little.
Also the extensional rupture average for PP+1%CNTs is 30.76 mm and
for PP is 134.50 mm, this means that the new composite has less
ductility properties.
Resuming the new material has a higher elasticity as we said in the
hypothesis, but also we could observe a decreasing in ductility, the new
properties of the material can be advantages o disadvantages depending the
application given to it.

Conclusions
In this laboratory practice we learned about melt mixing process to fabricate
a composite material with carbon nanotube, therefore we learned about the
importance of the nanomaterials, its great application actually to improve a
lot of characteristics like a mechanics properties of the materials modifying
 its molecular structure to get a lot of advantages in some areas of
application.
The testing tensile were interpreted and clearly we can identify the
differences among the neat polymer and the polymer with concentration of
carbon nanotube, the laboratory practice step up the concepts studied at the
class and motivate to continue researching about nanocomposites.

References

Carbon nanotubes, science and technology part (I) structure, synthesis

and characterization. 2012.Ahmad Aqel.Kholoud M.M. Abou El-Nourb, Reda
A.A. Ammarc, Abdulrahman Al-Warthanc. Arabian Journal of Chemistry

Polymer Nanotubes Nanocomposites: Synthesis, Properties and

Applications.2014.Vikas Mittal.Wiley

International, A. (2014). Retrieved from ASTM International:

www.astm.org