Hierarchical Structures Composed of Confined Carbon Nanotubes in Cocontinuous Ternary Polymer Blends

Abstract

An hierarchical structure, composed of a ternary cocontinuous polymer blend, where carbon nanotubes are mostly localized in one of the phases through π–π interactions, is fabricated by direct melt mixing of polyamide 12 and polypropylene, as the two major components of the ternary blend, together with pyridine-modified poly(ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) as the minor component that can form strong interactions with the CNTs via π–π interactions and confined the percolated network at the polyamide/polypropylene interface. The hierarchical structure was designed by means of surface energies, and the obtained morphology was verified using electron microscopy. This ternary structure has lower electrical resistivity as compared to cocontinuous binary composites. Different polymer viscosities were used in this study in order to emphasize the importance of kinetics during cocontinuous morphology formation.

Polyblend Nanocomposites

“…This work set the concept and guidelines toward the fabrication of other hierarchical structures with unique physical properties, composed of ternary polymer blend and nano particles (23).…”

Developing conductive immiscible polystyrene/polypropylene blends with a percolated conducting polyaniline/polyamide filler by tuning its specific interactions with the styrene‐based triblock compatibilizer grafted with maleic anhydride

“…In summary, we have developed a novel method for tailoring a double percolated filler network, consisting of a conducting polymer, in an immiscible polymer blend. The adopted approach was originally developed for blends containing traditional conducting nanoparticles, such as CNTs, but turns out to be equally effective with conducting polymers as the fillers. Our successful approach to develop conductive polymer blends via double percolation of conducting polymeric particles steered by a compatibilizer is expected to lead to an increasing interest to use conducting polymers as an alternative to traditional conducting nanoparticles using conventional melt processing techniques.…”

Toughness of ABS/PBT blends: The relationship between composition, morphology, and fracture behavior

“…has studied the core–shell ratio of ABS particles, crosslinking degree and initiator type of PBT structure on the toughness of PBT/ABS blends . Recently, the studies devoted to the morphology of immiscible blends have drawn lots of attentions, such as morphology control of immiscible polymer phase or effective conductive network built‐up via co‐continuous structure . The mechanical properties and brittle‐ductile transition related to the morphology of PBT/ABS or PBT/SAN have also been reported .…”