Work

Enhanced toughness and low temperature mechanical properties of PVC composites with PMMA grafted attapulgite via interface engineering

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Brittleness and low fracture toughness severely limit the performance of rigid PVC composites in extreme environments. This study proposes a synergistic strategy that utilizes a titanate coupling agent (TCA) as a bridge to connect attapulgite (ATP) with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). This design ensures uniform dispersion of ATP and strong interfacial adhesion, enabling effective energy dissipation and thus enhancing the mechanical properties of the material. Interfacial analysis elucidates the influence of fillers on the mechanical properties of the composite matrix. Experimental results show that adding only 3 phr of mATP@PMMA significantly improves the processability, thermal stability, and dynamic mechanical performance of the PVC composite. Both room temperature and low temperature mechanical properties are markedly enhanced. At room temperature, tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength increase by 26.8 %, 32.5 %, and 23.1 %, respectively. Even at -20 °C, the composite maintained high strength and exhibited considerable resilience, with SEM fractography clearly revealing effective interfacial interactions. While the impact strength of PVC drops by 48.4 % at low temperature, the composite with PVC/mATP@PMMA shows only a 14.8 % reduction. The interfacial mechanism is further elucidated through microstructural analysis. As a highly efficient performance additive, mATP@PMMA demonstrates considerable potential for manufacturing high performance composites.

Source: Journal of Materials Research and Technology

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2026.04.150