Surface Modification of Inorganic Fillers for the Modification of Polymers

The project deals mainly with inorganic filler and reinforcing agents, especially graphite and magnesia hydroxide. The polymeric matrix will be polypropylene, which can be modified for a wide field of applications. The goals of this project are on the one hand, to disperse the mineral fillers in the polymer matrix and to couple the fillers to the matrix in a defined way (practical part). On the other hand the polymer-filler system should be investigated by molecular modelling to study the interactions between polymer and filler, so that the influence of adequate surface treatment of graphite in order to gain an optimum in the mechanical properties (especially under impact and fatigue loads) and electrical properties of the compounds could be determined.