Thermal properties and flame retardance of Al(OH)3/polypropylene composites modified by polypropylene grafting with acrylic acid

The effect of polypropylene grafting with acrylic acid, PP-g-AA (FPP), on crystallization and melting behavior, thermal degradation, and limiting oxygen index of Al(OH)3/PP composites were investigated. The results indicated that crystallization temperature of PP shifted to high temperature with increasing content of Al(OH)3 because of the interfacial heterogeneous nucleation of Al(OH)3 and further increased by the addition of FPP and with increasing FPP content because of the improvement of the dispersion of Al(OH)3 in PP matrix and the increase in the nucleating sites of Al(OH)3. With adding Al(OH)3 and increasing the content of Al(OH)3, limiting oxygen index values of composites increased and further improved by adding FPP. This is attributed to the presence of an interfacial interaction between FPP and Al(OH)3. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci