Clay‐Assisted dispersion of carbon black in thermoplastic nanocomposites

Abstract

The poor dispersion of carbon black (CB) in thermoplastic polymers has provided a space for improving the various properties of nanocomposites. In this study, nanoclay (NC) was introduced into CB/thermoplastic composites to improve the dispersion of CB and, finally, to improve the thermal or mechanical performance. We noticed that there was a simultaneous enhancement in the mechanical and thermal performances of the nanocomposites because of the combination of the NC and CB. The information obtained from the mechanical and thermal studies indicated that the properties were improved to an appreciable extent because of the plastic-plastic/CB/NC combination. The tensile strength of polycarbonate (PC) was observed to be enhanced by 9.4% only because of the addition of CB, although when poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was used as a matrix material along with PC, the tensile strength improved by 25%, although the tensile strength of PMMA is much lower than that of PC. This confirmed that the tensile properties of the polymer composites also depended on the plastic-plastic interaction phenomenon. Moreover, the tensile strengths of the different blended nanocomposites system increased by around 42.5% with the addition of NC. A significant improvement of 22% was achieved in the thermal stability of the PMMA composites with the addition of CB. However, the addition of NC provided further improvement in the thermal decomposition temperature by only 3.7%. This showed that the thermal stability of the polymer nanocomposites was slightly affected by the addition of NC.

Effect of carbon black and nanoclay on mechanical and thermal properties of ABS–PANI/ABS–PPy blends

“…The presence of CB in polymer blend can be clearly observed in Figure (c and f), however, the dispersion seems to be highly nonuniform. NC plays an important role in the dispersion of filler in polymer matrix . It may enter into the interstitial sites of the ABS matrix which allows the small CB particle to penetrate through the intermolecular layers of the matrix.…”

Glass Transition Temperature and Mechanical Properties of Poly(Ethylene Carbonate)/Organoclay Composites

“…According to Ramlee and Tominaga [13], the low values of E, σ, and ε result in low toughness values.…”

In-situ pyrolysis: A novel technique for the dispersion of carbon particles in thermoplastics

“…However, the presence of solution molecules (water, ethanol and butanone) negatively affected the tensile strength. Further, several studies 9,14,19,20 report inhomogeneous distribution of carbon black-reinforced polymer composites prepared by melt mixing. In this regard, Sharma et al 19 targeted improved dispersion by introducing nano-clay particles to the composites.…”

“…Further, several studies 9,14,19,20 report inhomogeneous distribution of carbon black-reinforced polymer composites prepared by melt mixing. In this regard, Sharma et al 19 targeted improved dispersion by introducing nano-clay particles to the composites. Zhong et al 20 followed a different attempt by applying ultrasonic waves during the extrusion process to improve dispersion quality.…”

“…However, the highest filler content reported was in the range of 10 wt.%. 9,14,19,20 This study follows a novel approach for dispersing carbon particles within a PP matrix. Here, an in-situ process is adopted, in which a carbon rich organic precursor (in this case Carboxymethycellulose, shortly CMC) of low thermal stability is decomposed during the polymer processing stage.…”