Properties of Composites Based on Isotactic Polypropylene with Nickel-Containing Nanofillers

The influence of nanofiller (NF) additives containing nickel oxide nanoparticles (NP) stabilized by a polymer matrix of high density polyethylene (PE), obtained by the mechanochemical method, on the properties of composites based on isotactic polypropylene (PP) was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses. An improvement in the strength and deformation parameters as well as the thermal-oxidative stability of the resulting nanocomposites was revealed, which is apparently due to the effect of interfacial interaction of nickel containing nanoparticles with the polymer matrix. It has been shown that PP-based nanocomposites can be processed both by pressing and by injection molding and extrusion. Minor amounts of nanofiller introduced into the polymer play the role of structure formers: artificial crystallization nuclei, which contributes to the occurrence of a fine spherulite structure in the polymer, characterized by improved physicomechanical and thermal properties of the resulting nanocomposite.