Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene with Molybdenum Disulphide

Abstract

The presented investigation results confirm purposefulness of employing injection moulding and extrusion for fabrication of blends of polypropylene (PP) and Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) polymer matrix to generate novel composite materials through an advantageous melt-processing route. These two methods are used for manufacturing elements of devices in a mass scale.

The effect of different composition of MoS₂ on Polypropylene material performance was studied on samples which were directly obtained from extrusion and on injection moulding. Tensile, Compression, Flexural, Izod impact, micro hardness, Scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests were conducted on the test samples containing different composition of MoS₂ varying from 0.93 to 7.12 vol.%. It was found that there was a homogenous distribution of the Molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) particles in polypropylene (PP) and a good bonding was observed between them. The incorporation of MoS₂ generates notable performance enhancements through reinforcement effects, highly efficient nucleation activity and good bonding ability.

However, the mechanical properties of the composites containing above 4.28 vol.%MoS₂  was deteriorated, as compared to that of composites containing lower MoS₂ content.