Research Article Tensile and Impact Properties of Microcrystalline Cellulose Nanoclay Polypropylene Composites Yousef Ahmad Mubarak Chemical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Te University of Jordan, Amman 19942, Jordan Correspondence should be addressed to Yousef Ahmad Mubarak; ymubarak@ju.edu.jo Received 30 August 2017; Revised 12 January 2018; Accepted 18 February 2018; Published 21 March 2018 Academic Editor: Hossein Roghani-Mamaqani Copyright © 2018 Yousef Ahmad Mubarak. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te aim of the present work is to investigate the efects of nanoclay (NC) on the mechanical properties of polypropy- lene (PP)/microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) composites modifed by maleic anhydride grafed PP (PP-g-MA). Polypropy- lene/microcrystalline cellulose nanocomposites were prepared using a twin screw Brabender Plasticorder, the weight percent of the MCC was varied at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 40 wt%, and the NC content was varied at 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 wt%. Te results showed that consistent and uniform PP/MCC nanoclay composite can be produced easily with the presence of PP-g- MA. Compression molding technique was used to produce tensile and impact testing samples; all samples were characterized by tensile and impact tests. It is observed that increasing the amount of either the MCC or the NC will decrease the tensile strength, elongation at break, and impact strength; much more reduction in the same properties was obtained in case both MCC and NC exist within PP composites. Compared with neat PP, a loss of over 75% in both elongation and impact strength was obtained for nanoclay composites which contain 60 wt% PP/40 wt% MCC. Te most signifcant enhancement in the mechanical properties of polypropylene/microcrystalline cellulose nanocomposites is in Young’s modulus where an increment of more than twofold can be achieved for 60 wt% PP/40 wt% MCC nanocomposite. Polarized light photomicrographs showed that MCC particles play a nucleating agent rule in terms of intensity of nucleation and crystal growth acceleration. 1. Introduction Plastics are inert and nondegradable materials and cannot break down in nature and this leads the waste to be aggregated and thereby causes environmental pollution. Due to the huge amount of plastics waste and with increasing environmental concerns to preserve our environment, ecofriendly materials have gained the attention of many researchers [1, 2]. Utilizing degradable plastics can decrease the amount of plastics in landflls that is why the use of biodegradable polymers has increased recently up to 30% of the total plastic production. Recently and to achieve this type of materials, researcher’s interest has focused on degradable thermoplastic composites reinforced with lignocellulosic based materials (e.g., kenaf, bagasse, bamboo, tobacco, and cereal straws). Such materials are favored as a new generation of reinforcing agents in thermoplastics as they represent renewable, abundant, and biodegradable natural resources [3–6]. Termoplastics materials and composites are attractive for a variety of applications due to many features including low weight and cost, ease of processing and shaping, and corrosion resistance in addition to many other advantages. Enhancement of mechanical and physical properties of poly- mers was achieved by the discovery of new nanoscaled materials such as nanoclays [7], carbon nanotubes [8], and micro- and nanocellulose [9]. Tanomchat et al. [10] studied the morphology and crystallization of polypropy- lene/microfbrillated cellulose (MFC) composites and found that, for the PP/MFC composite, faster crystallization and higher spherulite growth rate can be achieved. In addition to that, the authors reported that the degree of crystallinity was fairly independent on the MFC-loading. Ummartyotin and Pechyen [11] prepared polypropylene composites by integrating a small amount of cellulose of 10 m in diameter and maleic anhydride which was employed as a coupling agent. Crystallization temperature and Hindawi International Journal of Polymer Science Volume 2018, Article ID 1708695, 13 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1708695