Investigation on the Effect of Carbon Nanotubes Concentration on the Electrical and Rheological Properties of PP/MWCNTs Composites

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicia Stan ◽  
Laurentiu Sandu ◽  
Catalin Fetecau

The objective of this paper was to investigate the electrical and rheological behaviors of polypropylene (PP) filled with 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0 wt.-% multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The flow behavior was analyzed in terms of the melt flow index measured at temperatures relevant for the injection molding process and the flow activation energy was calculated using an Arrhenius type equation. The electrical behavior of PP/MWCNTs composites was examined by DC resistance measurements on injection molded samples. The experimental results have shown that the incorporation of MWCNTs effectively enhances the electrical conductivity of the injection molded PP/MWCNTs composites. The composites under analysis can be classified as semi-conductors with the conducting network arranged in 4 dimensions, i.e. the critical exponent of the power-law dependence of the conductivity on the wt.-% MWCNTs is 2.37. The increased conductivity is explained by the orientation of the MWCNTs along the melt flow and the increased nanotubes-to-nanotubes contact after the formation of the percolation network.

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2083
Author(s):  
Farah ‘Atiqah Abdul Azam ◽  
Zakaria Razak ◽  
Mohd Khairul Fadzly Md Radzi ◽  
Norhamidi Muhamad ◽  
Che Hassan Che Haron ◽  
...  

The incorporation of kenaf fiber fillers into a polymer matrix has been pronounced in the past few decades. In this study, the effect of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a short kenaf fiber (20 mesh) with polypropylene (PP) added was investigated. The melt blending process was performed using an internal mixer to produce polymer composites with different filler contents, while the suitability of this melt composite for the injection molding process was evaluated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was carried out to investigate the thermal stability of the raw materials. Rheological analyses were conducted by varying the temperature, load factor, and filler content. The results demonstrate a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior in all samples with changed kenaf fillers (10 to 40 wt %) and MWCNT contents (1 to 4 wt %), which confirm the suitability of the feedstock for the injection molding process. The addition of MWCNTs had an immense effect on the viscosity and an enormous reduction in the feedstock flow behavior. The main contribution of this work is the comprehensive observation of the rheological characteristics of newly produced short PP/kenaf composites that were altered after MWCNT additions. This study also presented an adverse effect on the composites containing MWCNTs, indicating a hydrophilic property with improved water absorption stability and the low flammability effect of PP/kenaf/MWCNT composites. This PP/kenaf/MWCNT green composite produced through the injection molding technique has great potential to be used as car components in the automotive industry.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (28) ◽  
pp. 4359-4368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hesham Elkawash ◽  
Seha Tirkes ◽  
Firat Hacioglu ◽  
Umit Tayfun

In this study, two kinds of mineral fillers, bentonite (BNT) and barite (BRT), were incorporated into low density polyethylene (LDPE) by extrusion process. Silane treatment was applied to BRT and BNT surfaces in order to increase their compatibility with LDPE matrix. Surface characteristics of fillers were examined by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). LDPE-based composites were prepared at a constant concentration of 10%wt for each additives. Test samples were shaped by injection molding process. Mechanical, thermo-mechanical, water repellency, melt-flow and morphological characterizations of LDPE and its composites were performed by tensile and impact tests, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), water absorption test, melt flow index (MFI) measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique, respectively. Test results showed that surface treatments led to increase for final properties of composites since they promoted to stronger adhesion between minerals and LDPE matrix compared to untreated ones. Tensile and impact strength values, storage modulus and glass transition temperature of LDPE were improved by inclusion of silane treated minerals. BRT and BNT additions caused no remarkable changes with regard to MFI of LDPE. Additionally, silane modified mineral filled composites exhibited remarkable water resistance behavior. According to SEM analysis of composites, silane treated BNT and BRT containing samples displayed homogeneous dispersions into LDPE phase whereas debondings were observed for untreated BNT and BRT filled composites due to their weak adhesion to polymer matrix.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalin Fetecau ◽  
Felicia Stan ◽  
Nicoleta Violeta Cristea ◽  
Laurentiu Ionut Sandu

In this work, the advantages of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) filled with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were combined with those of the over injection molding process in order to obtain two-component (2k) structures with very different but high mechanical and electrical properties. TPU/MWCNT composites with different MWCNTs wt.% were over-molded onto Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) substrates, under different processing conditions, and the adhesion was assessed by T-peel tests at room temperature. Since adhesion is also related to flow behavior, the rheological properties were studied with a capillary rheometer at shear rates similar to those of the injection molding process (102∼104s−1). Experimental results indicated that the most effective way to control the adhesion between the ABS substrate and the over-molded TPU/MWCNT composite is to increase the melt temperature. The addition of carbon nanotubes improves adhesion in the vicinity of 0.5 wt.% MWCNTs.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Truong Giang ◽  
Pham Son Minh ◽  
Tran Anh Son ◽  
Tran Minh The Uyen ◽  
Thanh-Hai Nguyen ◽  
...  

In the injection molding field, the flow of plastic material is one of the most important issues, especially regarding the ability of melted plastic to fill the thin walls of products. To improve the melt flow length, a high mold temperature was applied with pre-heating of the cavity surface. In this paper, we present our research on the injection molding process with pre-heating by external gas-assisted mold temperature control. After this, we observed an improvement in the melt flow length into thin-walled products due to the high mold temperature during the filling step. In addition, to develop the heating efficiency, a flow focusing device (FFD) was applied and verified. The simulations and experiments were carried out within an air temperature of 400 °C and heating time of 20 s to investigate a flow focusing device to assist with external gas-assisted mold temperature control (Ex-GMTC), with the application of various FFD types for the temperature distribution of the insert plate. The heating process was applied for a simple insert model with dimensions of 50 mm × 50 mm × 2 mm, in order to verify the influence of the FFD geometry on the heating result. After that, Ex-GMTC with the assistance of FFD was carried out for a mold-reading process, and the FFD influence was estimated by the mold heating result and the improvement of the melt flow length using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The results show that the air sprue gap (h) significantly affects the temperature of the insert and an air sprue gap of 3 mm gives the best heating rate, with the highest temperature being 321.2 °C. Likewise, the actual results show that the height of the flow focusing device (V) also influences the temperature of the insert plate and that a 5 mm high FFD gives the best results with a maximum temperature of 332.3 °C. Moreover, the heating efficiency when using FFD is always higher than without FFD. After examining the effect of FFD, its application was considered, in order to improve the melt flow length in injection molding, which increased from 38.6 to 170 mm, while the balance of the melt filling was also clearly improved.


2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 187-190
Author(s):  
Jong Sun Kim ◽  
Chul Jin Hwang ◽  
Kyung Hwan Yoon

Recently, injection molded plastic optical products are widely used in many fields, because injection molding process has advantages of low cost and high productivity. However, there remains residual birefringence and residual stresses originated from flow history and differential cooling. The present study focused on developing a technique to measure the birefringence in transparent injection-molded optical plastic parts using two methods as follows: (i) the two colored laser method, (ii) the R-G-B separation method of white light. The main idea of both methods came from the fact that more information can be obtained from the distribution of retardation caused by different wavelengths. The comparison between two methods is demonstrated for the same sample of which retardation is up to 850 nm.


2012 ◽  
Vol 487 ◽  
pp. 644-648
Author(s):  
Yuan Liu ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
Qing Yan Xu ◽  
Pei Jie Lin ◽  
Zhi Hong Guo ◽  
...  

Melt-blown generated PBT nonwoven fabrics usually have small fibril diameter, high flexibility, well heat and oil resistance. Therefore, they would have promising application such as vehicle filtering media. The rheological behavior of PBT with High Melt Flow Index for Melt-blown is investigated in this paper. It is a direction of the technology design and fabrication parameters .The relation of apparent viscosity and shear rate is analyzed, as well as flow activation energy and Non-Newtonian indexes. The results suggest that PBT with High Melt Flow Index is Non-Newtonian fluid. Apparent viscosity and flow activation energy show gradually decrease with increasing shear rate, exhibiting typical shear-thinning behavior.


2010 ◽  
Vol 44-47 ◽  
pp. 2872-2876
Author(s):  
Pei Li Haw ◽  
Norhamidi Muhamad ◽  
Hadi Murthadha

The rheological behaviors of the Micro Metal Injection Molding feedstock are important for the stability of the feedstock during micro injection molding process and quality of the final micro-components. Homogeneous feedstocks are preferable for MIM process to ensure the dimensional consistency of molded components and prevent the defects of powder-binder separation or particle segregation. In this work, feedstocks with various formulations of 316L stainless steel and binder system were prepared by using Brabender Plastograph EC Plus mixer. The binder system comprises of palm stearin, polyethelene (PE) and stearic acid. In order to obtain the viscosity, activation energy, flow behavior and mold ability index, the rheological characterization of the feedstocks were investigated in numerous conditions by using Shimadzu 500-D capillary rheometer The study showed that all of the 316L stainless steel feedstocks are homogenous with pseudo-plastic behaviors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 543-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianfei Cao ◽  
Yue Lu ◽  
Hechun Chen ◽  
Lifang Zhang ◽  
Chengdong Xiong

Poly(etheretherketone) exhibits good biocompatibility, excellent mechanical properties, and bone-like stiffness. However, the natural bio-inertness of pure poly(etheretherketone) hinders its applications in biomedical field, especially when direct bone-implant osteo-integration is desired. For developing an alternative biomaterial for load-bearing orthopedic application, combination of bioactive fillers with poly(etheretherketone) matrix is a feasible approach. In this study, a bioactive multi-walled carbon nanotubes/calcium polyphosphate/poly(etheretherketone) composite was prepared through a compounding and injection-molding process for the first time. Bioactive calcium polyphosphate was added to polymer matrix to enhance the bioactivity of the composite, and incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes to composite was aimed to improve both the mechanical property and biocompatibility. Furthermore, the microstructures, surface hydrophilicity, and mechanical property of multi-walled carbon nanotubes/calcium polyphosphate/poly(etheretherketone) composite, as well as the cellular responses of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells to this material were investigated. The mechanical testing revealed that mechanical performance of the resulting ternary composite was significantly enhanced by adding the multi-walled carbon nanotubes and the mechanical values obtained were close to or higher than those of human cortical bone. More importantly, cell culture tests showed that initial cell adhesion, cell viability, and osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells were significantly promoted on the multi-walled carbon nanotubes/calcium polyphosphate/poly(etheretherketone) composite. Accordingly, the multi-walled carbon nanotubes/calcium polyphosphate/poly(etheretherketone) composite may be used as a promising bone repair material in dental and orthopedic applications.


2012 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Ai Yun Jiang ◽  
Jing Chao Zou ◽  
Bao Feng Zhang ◽  
Hai Hong Wu

For conductive-carbon-fiber-filled polymer composites, the residual stresses developed during injection molding process may affect not only the molding’s conductive property, but its dimensional stability as well. In order to improve the conductivity of the molding fabricated with this kind of composites, we investigated, using layer removal method, the distribution of the residual stresses of injection-molded conductive-carbon-fiber-filled polypropylene in this paper. The residual stresses were obtained under the actions of different processing conditions. Our results indicate that processing pressures have more significant effects on the residual stresses at the skin areas than the core areas of the sample because of fiber orientation. The tensile stresses of the molding at the core areas drop under the action of packing pressure, but the compressive stresses at the skin areas increase. The results reveal that the action of packing pressure may decrease the anisotropy of the residual stresses in the molding.


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