Flexural behavior of PP/Mica composites interfacial modified by a p‐phenylen‐bis‐maleamic acid grafted atactic polypropylene modifier obtained from industrial wastes

The study of the flexural behavior of the polypropylene/mica system with modified interface by the presence of an interfacial agent obtained from an industrial polymerization by‐product is one of the purposes of present work. The interfacial agent used was a p‐phenylen‐bis‐maleamic grafted atactic polypropylene, aPP‐pPBMA, obtained in authors’ laboratories. Jointly to the study of the effect of the interfacial modification in the composite system, this paper has tried to underline a mathematical model to make predictions of the ultimate properties of the composite. So, a statistical two independent variables Box‐Wilson experimental design have been used to model the behavior of the composite system. The two independent variables considered were the amount of mica particles and of interfacial agent. The fact that the flexural test consist in a combination of compressive and tensile stresses emerges from the analysis of both the data and the statistic parameters of the model. Additionally, a lower sensitivity to changes in the amount of the interfacial agent is found if compared to the obtained for tensile properties. Furthermore, an excellent correlation emerges between the flexural modulus forecasts and those obtained under tensile conditions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42437.