Abstract: Polypropylene/multiwalled carbon nanotube (PP/MWNTs) and polypropylene/organo-montmorillonite (PP/OMMT) composites were prepared via melting blending. Thermal gravimetric analysis was applied to record the thermal degradation behavior of the composites under nitrogen atmosphere with different heating rates. The thermal decomposition data were analyzed with Kissinger and Ozawa Methods. It showed that both MWNTs and OMMT could enhance the thermal resistance of PP matrix, and the apparent activation energy of PP/OMMT was higher than PP/MWNTs. SEM observation showed that MWNTs took disordered rod-like distribution while OMMT presented lamellar-structure dispersion in PP matrix.

Key words: polypropylene, multiwalled carbon nanotube, organo-montmorillonite, composite, thermal degradation kinetics