Highly Improved Creep Resistance in Polypropylene Through Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide and Its Creep Lifetime Prediction

Polypropylene(PP) exhibits suboptimal creep resistance due to the presence of methyl groups on its main chain, leading to irregular chain segment distribution, diminished inter-chain interaction, and crystallinity. This structural feature causes chain slippage in PP under stress,significantly constraining its service lifetime. In this study, thermally reduced graphene oxide(TrGO) nanosheets were incorporated into the PP matrix, yielding a nanocomposite with exceptional creep resistance performance. Results demonstrated that at a stress of 25 MPa, a 2.0 wt% TrGO content could enhance the creep failure lifetime of PP by 21.5 times compared to neat PP. Rheology, transmission electron microscopy(TEM),and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) characterization techniques were employed to analyze the mechanism of TrGO's influence on PP's creep behavior. It was observed that when TrGO content exceeded 1.0 wt%, an effective particle network structure formed within the PP matrix. This homogeneously dispersed TrGO-formed particle network structure restricted the migration and rearrangement of PP molecular chains, enabling prolonged stress resistance without structural failure. By combining the time-strain superposition method with the critical failure strain as a criterion, generalized creep compliance curves for PP and its composites were established, facilitating the prediction of material creep failure lifetimes, with a strong agreement between experimental and predicted lifetime values. This research proposes a novel strategy aimed at developing polypropylene materials and products with enhanced long-term stability and durability, thus extending service life, reducing failure risk, and broadening their potential across various application domains.