Effect of organomodified montmorillonite on acoustic properties of wood–plastic nanocomposites

In this study, the effect of organomodified montmorillonite (OMMT) on the acoustic properties and clay dispersion of polypropylene (PP)/wood flour (WF) composites was investigated. To meet this objective, the blend composites were prepared through the melt mixing of PP/WF at 50% weight ratios, with various amounts of OMMT (0, 3, and 6 per hundred compounds (phc)) in hake internal mixer then the samples made by injection molding. The amount of coupling agent was fixed at 2 phc for all formulations. The acoustic properties such as speed of sound propagation, time of sound propagation, and sound energy absorbance were evaluated. Results indicated that the time of sound propagation and sound energy absorbance of composites increased with increase in OMMT. However, the speed of sound propagation decreased with the increase in OMMT loading. Also, the biggest improvement of the tensile modulus can be achieved for the nanoclay loading at 3 phc. X-Ray diffraction patterns and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the nanocomposites formed were intercalated. Also, morphological findings showed that samples containing 3 phc of OMMT had higher order of intercalation.