Fabrication of foamed polypropylene with excellent behaviors by adding a special foam stabilizer

Foamed polypropylene (PP) has attracted more and more attention in recent years due to its unique properties, such as heat resistance and high flexural modulus. In this work, foamed PP with excellent properties was successfully fabricated by adding a special foam stabilizer, which was prepared by a simple one-step strategy using fatty acid and amino silicone oil as reactants. The two-component stabilizer mixed uniformly with PP and reduced the surface tension during foaming. The foam stabilizer significantly reduced density and cell diameter of the foam. When the amount of foam stabilizer was 1.0 wt%, the density dropped to 0.958 g/cm(3), about 2.8% lower vs foam generated without stabilizer. The tensile strength increased to 18.4 MPa from 16.1 MPa, and the elongation at break increased to 495% from 328%.