Electrical behavior of polypropylene composites melt mixed with carbon-based particles: Effect of the kind of particle and annealing process

Effect of Carbon-Based Particles on the Mechanical Behavior of Isotactic Poly(propylene)s

“…[ 65 ] The CNTs aggregates were continuously interconnected through the polymer by means of these lonely CNTs allowing the electrical conduction in these samples as reported previously. [ 11,65 ] Figure as displayed in Figure 1 c, where the graphene nanoplatelets were intercalated and wrinkled due to the presence of the polymer matrix. Moreover, the polymer was able to disrupt the agglomerations and particles of less than 1 μm were observed.…”

“…[ 25 ] In particular, by a thermal shock at high temperatures under inert atmospheres, such as Ar or N 2 , GO can be reduced, resulting in thermally reduced graphene oxide (TrGO). [ 11,29,31 ] This process removes the functional groups while signifi cantly exfoliates the structure increasing the surface area. [ 30,32 ] Both the evaporation of water and the elimination of oxide groups can cause a loss of mass ≈30%, leaving vacancies and structural defects (wrinkles) generally reducing the mechanical and electrical properties of TrGO.…”

“…[ 11 ] These results motivated us to further extend the analysis to other relevant properties especially mechanical behavior in both solid and melt state being the main goal of this contribution.…”

“…The graphite oxidation process of Hummers and Offeman was employed, [ 28 ] with KMnO 4 and NaNO 3 as oxidants in concentrated sulfuric acid, as described in ref. [11] . In a second step, the dry GO was thermally reduced to afford TrGO in a nitrogen atmosphere by rapidly heating GO up to ≈ 600 °C during 40 s using a quartz reactor heated in a vertical tube furnace.…”

“…[ 8,9 ] From the different types of nanoparticles used as fi ller, carbon-based materials are highlighted, especially carbon nanotubes (CNTs) due to their outstanding properties such as thermal stability (> 700 °C in air), high modulus (≈ 1 TPa), aspect ratio (≈ 1000), and electrical conductivity (≈ 10 6 S m −1 ). [ 1 ] The CNTs are mainly used in the development of composite materials taking advantage of either electrical conductivity by forming a percolated network, [ 10,11 ] or improved mechanical properties by fi ller reinforcement. [ 1,[12][13][14][15][16] For the former application, the addition of a second nanoparticle forming a hybrid nanocomposite to improve the electrical behavior is stressed allowing the reduction of CNTs concentration in the percolated system.…”