Melt processing and property testing of a model system of plastics contained in waste from electrical and electronic equipment

Abstract

In the present research, blending of polymers used in electrical and electronic equipment, i.e. acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer, polycarbonate and polypropylene, was performed in a twin-screw extruder, in order to explore the effect process parameters on the mixture properties, in an attempt to determine some characteristics of a fast and economical procedure for waste management. The addition of polycarbonate in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer seemed to increase its thermal stability. Also, the addition of polypropylene in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer facilitates its melt processing, whereas the addition of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer in polypropylene improves its mechanical performance. Moreover, the upgrading of the above blends by incorporating 2 phr organically modified montmorillonite was investigated. The prepared nanocomposites exhibit greater tensile strength, elastic modulus and storage modulus, as well as higher melt viscosity, compared with the unreinforced blends. The incorporation of montmorillonite nanoplatelets in polycarbonate-rich acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer/polycarbonate blends turns the thermal degradation mechanism into a two-stage process. Alternatively to mechanical recycling, the energy recovery from the combustion of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer/polycarbonate and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer/polypropylene blends was recorded by measuring the gross calorific value. Comparing the investigated polymers, polypropylene presents the higher gross calorific value, followed by acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer and then polycarbonate. The above study allows a rough comparative evaluation of various methodologies for treating plastics from waste from electrical and electronic equipment.

Tensile Behaviour and Morphology of Polypropylene/Polycar-bonate/Polypropylene-graft-maleic Anhydride Blends

“…Over the years, several works on PP/PC blends were reported [6][7]. PP and PC are immiscible with each other because of the differences in polarity and solubility parameters [8][9].…”

Recycling by injection and chrome plating of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene parts pickled in hydrochloric and nitric acids

“…As previously verified by the ATR‐FTIR, pickling and reprocessing by injection molding causes degradation of the butadiene phase, and thereby the formation of free radicals, oxidized groups and reactions that can lead to the formation of stable reticulated structures. Thus, an increase in T g of this phase decreases the mobility of the polymer chain and increases the stiffness of the material as evidenced by the increase in E ' and the decrease in E ", but with low intensity . It can observed in Figure that compared with neat ABS, the storage modulus increased with increasing of pickled ABS percentage, although there was an oscillation in the values.…”

“…Thus, an increase in T g of this phase decreases the mobility of the polymer chain and increases the stiffness of the material as evidenced by the increase in E' and the decrease in E", but with low intensity. 30 It can observed in Figure 8 that compared with neat ABS, the storage modulus increased with increasing of pickled ABS percentage, although there was an oscillation in the values. Samples with 10 and 30% of pickled ABS exhibited larger storage modulus corresponding to the PB phase than pickled ABS sample (the difference was approximately 9%).…”

Review on the Preparation, Structure and Property Relation of Clay-Based Polymer Nanocomposites

“…The remarkable improvements in the physical properties of polymeric materials due to the incorporation of clay fillers have led to the increased attention on the preparation of clay-based polymer nanocomposites in recent years. These significant enhancements have been attributed to the nanometer dimensions of the clay fillers (Alexandre and Dubois, Polymer-layered, 2000;Vaia and Giannelis, Lattice, 1997;Decker et al, 2005;Ramesh and Punithamurthy, 20017;Venugopal et al, 2016;Majka et al, 2016;Li, 2016;Khandal et al, 2016;Triantou et al, 2015;Mattausch, 2015;Hoang et al, 2015;Giroto et al, 2015). The most significant enhancements have been observed in the nanocomposites where a complete delamination of the clay structure (exfoliation) is achieved.…”