Ultra-low percolation threshold induced by thermal treatments in co-continuous blend-based PP/PS/MWCNTS nanocomposites

Strugova, Daria, Ferreira Junior, José Carlos, David, Éric et Demarquette, Nicole R.. 2021. « Ultra-low percolation threshold induced by thermal treatments in co-continuous blend-based PP/PS/MWCNTS nanocomposites ». Nanomaterials, vol. 11, nº 6.

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Abstract

The effect of the crystallization of polypropylene (PP) forming an immiscible polymer blend with polystyrene (PS) containing conductive multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on its electrical conductivity and electrical percolation threshold (PT) was investigated in this work. PP/PS/MWCNTs composites with a co-continuous morphology and a concentration of MWCNTs ranging from 0 to 2 wt.% were obtained. The PT was greatly reduced by a two-step approach. First, a 50% reduction in the PT was achieved by using the effect of double percolation in the blend system compared to PP/MWCNTs. Second, with the additional thermal treatments, referred to as slow-cooling treatment (with the cooling rate 0.5 °C/min), and isothermal treatment (at 135 °C for 15 min), ultra-low PT values were achieved for the PP/PS/MWCNTs system. A 0.06 wt.% of MWCNTs was attained upon the use of the slow-cooling treatment and 0.08 wt.% of MWCNTs upon the isothermal treatment. This reduction is attributed to PP crystals’ volume exclusion, with no alteration in the blend morphology.

Item Type:	Peer reviewed article published in a journal
Professor:	Professor David, Éric Demarquette, Nicole R.
Affiliation:	Génie mécanique, Génie mécanique
Date Deposited:	28 Jul 2021 20:43
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2021 15:58
URI:	https://espace2.etsmtl.ca/id/eprint/22935

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