Abstract: Hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile (HPAN) obtained from waste polyacrylonitrile fabrics was used as a raw material to prepare HPAN-g-TiO2(KH-550) through the chemical reaction between nano-TiO2 and HPAN with the aid of γ-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (KH-550). The resultant products were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis, and then an artificially accelerated aging test was performed toward polypropylene (PP)/HPAN-g-TiO2(KH-550) and PP/TiO2 compounds by a QUV accelerated weathering tester. Furthermore, a comparative investigation was conduced in the mechanical strength and rheological properties of the compounds before and after accelerated aging tests. The results indicated that the introduction of HPAN-g-TiO2(KH-550) reduced the aging degradation of PP effectively through preventing its macromolecular chains from breaking. Meanwhile, PP could also be reinforced with the addition of HPAN-g-TiO2(KH-550), and the compound achieved 24.963 MPa in tensile strength at the PP/HPANgTiO2(KH550) weight ratio of 92/8.

Key words: waste acrylic fabrics, hydrolysis, polypropylene, anti-aging