Structural, thermal, mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of cenosphere filled polypropylene composites

Polypropylene (PP)/cenosphere based composites were fabricated and characterized for their structural/morphological and mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, impact and dynamic mechanical properties such as storage and loss moduli as a function of temperature. The morphological attributes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) while the thermal characterizations were done by conducting differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphological investigations have revealed a uniformly distributed/dispersed state of the cenosphere in the bulk PP matrix of the composites. The WAXD/DSC studies have revealed a decrease in crystallinity of the composites with increase in cenosphere content. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed an enhancement in the energy dissipation ability of the composite with 10 wt.% of cenosphere and an increase in the storage modulus up to ∼30% in the composites relative to the soft PP-phase. The tensile modulus increased up to ∼43% accompanied by a nominal decrease in tensile strength while the strain at break remained largely unaffected. The impact strength of the composites marginally reduced compared to PP indicating a low-cost material-concept with maximized stiffness–toughness combination. The theoretical modeling of the tensile data revealed appreciable extent of phase-adhesion despite the cenospheres lack any surface modification indicating better extent of mechanical interlocking and surface-compatibility between polymer and filler. Fractured surface morphology indicated that the failure mode of the composites undergoes a switch-over from matrix-controlled shear deformation to filler-controlled quasi-brittle modes above a cenosphere loading of 10 wt.% in the composites.