A Taguchi analysis on structural properties of polypropylene microcellular nanocomposite foams containing Fe2O3 nanoparticles in batch process

Polypropylene (PP) as a thermoplastic polymer has been foamed using batch foaming process. CO2 is used as the blowing agent of the foaming. Ferrous oxide nanoparticles (nano Fe2O3) are also added as reinforcement. Effect of different parameters including nanoparticle weight percentage, foaming temperature and time on the structural properties of PP/nano Fe2O3 nanocomposites is investigated using Taguchi approach. Scanning electron microscope results depict that an appropriate microcellular structure is obtained with the cell density of 10(9) cells/cm(3) and almost 1 m of cell size. Analysis of variance results indicated that foaming temperature is the most significant parameter on the structural properties. Cell density and expansion ratio are decreased by increasing foaming temperature. This phenomenon could be due to the reducing melt strength of polymer/gas mixture. It was also inferred that adding 2 wt% of nanoparticles leads to 80% improvement in cell density while cell size and expansion ratio was decreased.