Effects of the Nanofillers on Physical Properties of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene Nanocomposites: Comparison of Graphene Nanoplatelets and Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The effects of carbonaceous nanoparticles, such as graphene (GNP) and multiwall carbon nanotube (CNT) on the mechanical and electrical properties of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) nanocomposites have been investigated. Samples with various filler loadings were produced by solvent free process. Composites ABS/GNP showed higher stiffness, better creep stability and processability, but slightly lower tensile strength and electrical properties (low conductivity) when compared with ABS/CNT nanocomposites. Tensile modulus, tensile strength and creep stability of the nanocomposite, with 6 wt % of GNP, were increased by 47%, 1% and 42%, respectively, while analogous ABS/CNT nanocomposite showed respective values of 23%, 12% and 20%. The electrical percolation threshold was achieved at 7.3 wt % for GNP and 0.9 wt % for CNT. The peculiar behaviour of conductive CNT nanocomposites was also evidenced by the observation of the Joule’s effect after application of voltages of 12 and 24 V. Moreover, comparative parameters encompassing stiffness, melt flow and resistivity were proposed for a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of the fillers.

Fused Filament Fabrication of Piezoresistive Carbon Nanotubes Nanocomposites for Strain Monitoring

“…Figure 3 shows TEM microanalysis of parallel surface of CNT/ABS 6 wt.%, and various carbon nanotubes appear almost randomly dispersed with some point of contact, with evidence of a It should be noted that the percolation threshold of CNT in ABS has been determined at 0.42 vol.% and no electrical conductivity has been observed for CNT content lower than 2 %wt. (Dul et al, 2018b).…”

“…The technical data sheet 2 reports an average length of 1.5 µm, a diameter of 9.5 nm and a surface area of 250-300 m 2 /g. TEM analysis is reported in literature (Dul et al, 2018b).…”

“…An selected composition (Dul et al, 2018b;Ecco et al, 2018) of 6 wt.% of CNT were first melt blended with ABS matrix through a Thermo-Haake Polylab Rheomix counter-rotating internal mixer at a temperature of 190 • C and rotor speed of 90 rpm for 15 min. The resulting material was granulated in a Piovan grinder Model RN 166 and grinded pieces with average size of 2.1 ± 0.6 mm) were used to feed a Thermo Haake PTW16 intermeshing corotating twin screw extruder (screw diameter = 16 mm; L/D ratio = 25; nozzle die diameter 1.80 mm).…”

“…In our previous works, highly conductive ABS/CNT nanocomposites with 6 wt.% of nanofillers were successfully 3Dprinted through FFF process and their extensive characterization including tensile, thermal and electrical properties was reported (Dul et al, 2018a). The composition percentage of 6 wt.% of CNT was properly selected in the tested range 2-8% wt.%, as an adequate compromise between the improvement of some properties after addition of the filler, and the correspondent reduction of composite processability, as evidenced by the critical decrease of melt flow (Dul et al, 2018b) and melt viscosity (Ecco et al, 2018). Electrical and magnetic properties of both graphene and CNT nanocomposites were studied and compared in view of EMI-SE applications (Ecco et al, 2018).…”

“…The authors studied and compared a balanced effect of filler content and process on the fracture properties and on the samples conductivity (Thaler et al, 2019). On the other hand, a much lower resistivity in the range of about 29 and 0.9 .cm was obtained for CNT/ABS plates with composition between 2 and 8 wt.% of nanofiller, respectively (Dul et al, 2018b).…”