Performance properties of pigmented polyvinyl chloride nanocomposites

This work highlighted the role of blue CoO·MgO·Al2O3 pigments in changing some properties of PVC composites such as electrical, mechanical and thermal properties. The pigments were prepared by doping different ratios of magnesium in cobalt aluminate crystals using solid–solid interaction. The prepared pigments were characterized by different instrumental analysis (e.g. XRD, SEM and TEM). The influences of different concentrations of nanosized CoO·MgO·Al2O3 pigment on PVC prepared by solution blending were studied. The obtained data revealed that PVC nanocomposites containing 1CoO·1MgO·Al2O3 pigments show the most promising results. The composites containing 5 wt% of the three compositions of pigments exhibit the optimum electrical, mechanical as well as thermal properties. The relation between tan δ and temperature indicates that Tg is not affected by increasing pigment content till 5 wt%, after this concentration, it begins to shift towards higher temperatures. The above investigation led to a conclusion that the optimum recommended concentration of 1CoO·1MgO·Al2O3 pigments is 5 wt%. This finding was confirmed by TEM micrographs indicated that inspite that the pigments were prepared in the nano-scale, they tend to agglomerate in the composite reaching the micron-size.