Improving thermal endurance properties of polypropylene by nanostructuration

Isothermal thermogravimetric analysis is used as analytical technique for short-term thermal endurance characterization of nanostructured isotactic polypropylene. The nanofiller consists of organophilic-modified fluorohectorite, that is, a layered silicate. It is shown that the temperature index improves considerably with respect to the base polypropylene, with only 6 wt.% of nanofiller, thus enabling the potential use of the thermoplastic nanostructured material at significantly higher operating temperatures.