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Improvement of thermal stability of polypropylene using DOPO-immobilized silica nanoparticles

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Abstract

After the surface silylation with 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, silica nanoparticles were further modified by 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO). The immobilization of DOPO on silica nanoparticles was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermogravimetric analysis. By incorporating the DOPO-immobilized silica nanoparticles (5 wt%) into polypropylene matrix, the thermal oxidative stability exhibited an improvement of 62 °C for the half weight loss temperature, while that was only 26 °C increment with incorporation of virgin silica nanoparticles (5 wt%). Apparent activation energies of the polymer nanocomposites were estimated via Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method. It was found that the incorporation of DOPO-immobilized silica nanoparticles improved activation energies of the degradation reaction. Based on the results, it was speculated that DOPO-immobilized silica nanoparticles could inhibit the degradation of polypropylene and catalyze the formation of carbonaceous char on the surface. Thus, thermal stability was significantly improved.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Junfeng Xiang and Ms. Aijiao Guan for the helpful discussion about the NMR experiment. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 21074142 and 51133009) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program; no. 2009AA033601).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Quanxiao Dong, Yanfen Ding, Bin Wen, Feng Wang, Huicong Dong, Shimin Zhang & Mingshu Yang

  2. Crest Center for Nanomaterials, College of Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC, 20059, USA

    Tongxin Wang

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  1. Quanxiao Dong
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Correspondence to Tongxin Wang or Mingshu Yang.

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Dong, Q., Ding, Y., Wen, B. et al. Improvement of thermal stability of polypropylene using DOPO-immobilized silica nanoparticles. Colloid Polym Sci 290, 1371–1380 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-012-2631-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-012-2631-0

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