A dynamic–mechanical study of the role of succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene as interfacial modifier in polypropylene/talc composites.: Effect of grafting degree

Present work is devoted to the changes produced in the interfacial interactions caused by an interfacial agent consisting in succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene acting into a polypropylene/talc composite as revealed by dynamic–mechanical spectrometry. The interfacial agents used here were previously obtained in our laboratories by means of a two step process of chemical modification in the melt of a by-product (atactic polypropylene) from industrial polymerization reactors, and consist in four different additives with 1–4% w/w of grafting degree expressed as succinic equivalent. In this way, the variations of interfacial activity caused by replacing a little amount of polypropylene matrix in the composite by the succinil-fluoresceine grafted atactic polypropylene can be clearly detected. Furthermore, a correlation between parameters from the microscopical scale such as the obtained by DMA and other from the macroscopic such as mechanical properties appears to emerge.