Effect of morphology on the permeability, mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene/SiO2 nanocomposites

Artículo de publicación ISISpherical silica nanoparticles with 20 and 100 nm diameters and organic-template layered silica nanoparticles synthesized by the sol-gel method were melt blended with a polypropylene (PP) matrix in order to study and quantify their effect on the oxygen and water vapor permeability and mechanical and thermal behavior. With regard to barrier properties, the spherical nanoparticles barely increased the oxygen permeability at lowloads (≤10 wt%);meanwhile the layered nanoparticles dramatically increased it even at low loading (