Composite and biocomposite foams based on polypropylene with reinforcements and functional fillers prepared by supercritical CO2 dissolution

Abstract

One of the actual trends in polymer foams consists in the development of new materials by combining density reduction through foaming with the incorporation of functional fillers. This would enable to obtain materials with improved specific properties and acided functionalities. There is also a growing interest in the use of environmentally-friendly materials obtained from renewable sources, thus coming as a logical step to combine both in order to create novel biocomposite foams. This work presents an overview of our recent results regarding the preparation by supercritical CO2 dissolution foaming and structural, thermal and mechanical characterizations of rigid polypropylene-based composite foams, with the main goal of developing new lightweight materials with tailor-made properties. Several reinforcements have been considered, from renewable cellulose fibres to nanometric-sized reinforcements such as silicate-layered nanoclays and carbon nanofibres.