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Sulfuric acid treatment of ground tire rubber and its effect on the mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene composites
Author(s) -
Hernández Ernesto Hernández,
Gámez José Francisco Hernández,
Cepeda Lorena Farías,
Muñoz Esthela Judith Chávez,
Corral Florentino Soriano,
Rosales Silvia Guadalupe Solís,
Velázquez Guadalupe Neira,
Morones Pablo González,
Martínez Deidré I. Sánchez
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.44864
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , polypropylene , crystallinity , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , differential scanning calorimetry , natural rubber , sulfuric acid , scanning electron microscope , composite number , chemical engineering , physics , engineering , metallurgy , thermodynamics
Ground tire rubber (GTR) was modified by sulfuric acid in order to improve its compatibility with and reinforcement of a polypropylene (PP) matrix. Polymer composites PP/GTR were prepared by melt mixing at different concentrations, with a maximum of 50 wt % of GTR. Studies by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), surface specific area by BET (Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller), and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the untreated GTR and treated GTR, while the mechanical and thermal properties of the PP/GTR composites were assessed to understand how the surface treatment of GTR affected the mechanical and thermal properties of the composite PP/GTR. FTIR revealed the presence of sulfonic groups on the surface of sulfuric acid–treated GTR, and BET analyses showed an increase of about 625% in the specific surface area as a result of the high porosity produced by the treatment. In all composites containing treated GTR, a higher Young's modulus was obtained than for composites containing untreated GTR. Particularly, an increase of about 275% in the Young's modulus was obtained in composites with treated GTR (40 wt %) against that containing untreated GTR. However, a more significant reduction of the elongation at break was observed in composites containing treated GTR than in those containing untreated GTR. Also, an increase of the crystallization temperature of PP as a function of GTR was observed by differential scanning calorimetry, but the crystallinity of the composites was reduced by the addition of both untreated and treated GTR. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44858.