Characterization of Various Carbon-Based Polypropylene Nanocomposites

Pure and three types of carbon additives including graphite, graphene, and multi-walled carbon nanotube added into polypropylene (PP) composites as a vibration damping component and sound insulator material in the automotive sector were investigated by using vibrational damping, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), tensile, hardness and acoustic behavior tests. According to the obtained results, porosity and distribution of carbon in the polymer matrix are key parameters on the composite parameters causing its reduction of tensile strength and its brittle behavior. Moreover, it seems that 0.01 wt.% graphene and 1 wt.% graphite added PP composites show the highest impact damping properties and also increase the storage and loss modulus of the composite while decreasing the glass transition temperature. The loss factor obtained from DMA and vibration damping test indicated the damping capacity in the interphase of carbon added PP composites depends only on the load applied and not sensitivity upon the natural frequency of the composite system. Depending on the morphological differentiation, graphene added PP composites decrease the sound transmission loss while the 0.1 wt.% MWCNT added PP composites increase sound transmission loss which makes it an alternative vibration damping component.