Photo-oxidation of polypropylene/graphene nanoplatelets composites

摘要： The photo-oxidation behaviour of polymer nanocomposites depends not only on the photo-oxidation behaviour of the matrix, but also on the chemical composition, on the physical properties of the nanoparticles and on the possible interactions between the two phases. In the case of nanocomposites with carbonaceous particles, the main effect is a photo-stabilization due to the absorption of the UV energy and the radical scavenging action. In this work we investigated the effect of the presence of graphene nanoplatelets on the photo-oxidation behaviour of the polypropylene. The presence of the graphene nanoplatelets improves the photo-resistance of the polypropylene and this effect increases with the graphene content. This behaviour has been correlated with the exposed surface of the graphene and not to the dimensions of the graphene nanoplatelets.