Study of the effects of ionizing radiation on calcium carbonate-modified polypropylene loaded with silver nanoparticles

Mineral calcium carbonate is the most important and abundant of all sedimentary rocks used commercially. There are several studies on the influence of the addition of calcium carbonate on the physical and rheological properties of the materials. The chicken egg shell, which contains at about 40% Ca in the form of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), is a low-cost, easy-to-obtain and option to achieve the purpose of this study. In order to obtain eggshell powder, the peels were washed, sanitized, dried in an oven, ground in a mill and characterized for use in the present work. High melt strength polypropylene (HMSPP) has been recently developed and marketed by leading polypropylene producers. One way to improve melt strength and extensibility is to add polypropylene backbone strands using gamma radiation. The objective of this work is to evaluate the influence of the addition of calcium carbonate with silver nanoparticles in different proportions in the properties of films and pellets of HMSPP 12.5 kGy with concentrations of 0.1 and 0.3%. (author)