Rotomolded antistatic and flame-retarded graphite nanocomposites

Abstract

Graphite nanoplatelets with an average particle size of 13 μm and an estimated flake thickness of about 76 nm were prepared by microwave exfoliation, followed by ultrasonication-assisted liquid phase delamination, of an expandable graphite. This nano-additive was used to fabricate linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) based nanocomposite sheets using rotational moulding. The dry blending approach yielded surface resistivities within the static dissipation range at filler loadings as low as 0.25 wt.% (0.1 vol.%). However, even at this low graphite content, impact properties were significantly reduced compared to the neat polymers. Bilayer mouldings via the double dumping method proved to be a feasible approach to achieve both acceptable mechanical properties and antistatic properties. This was achieved by rotomolding nanocomposite sheets with a 1 mm outer layer containing the filler and a 2 mm inner layer of neat LLDPE. Excellent fire resistance, in terms of cone calorimeter testing, was achieved when the outer layer also contained 10 wt.% expandable graphite.

The Effect of Plasma Treatment of Polyethylene Powder and Glass Fibers on Selected Properties of Their Composites Prepared via Rotational Molding

“…Following this, many studies investigating the possibility of producing composites via rotational molding were conducted. Different natural fibers such as flax [10], banana and abaca [11], agave [12][13][14], coir [12,14,15], pine [12], maple [16,17], wood [18,19], buckwheat husk [20], glass fibers [21,22], carbon fibers [22], glass particles [23,24], other synthetic particles [24,25] and nanoparticles [26][27][28][29][30] as reinforcements with different grades of polyethylene [9,11,12,14,15,17,21,22,31], polyamide [26], polylactic acid [13,20], and polypropylene [18] as matrix were used in the studies.…”

Evaluation of mechanical, optical, and antibacterial properties of metal‐oxide dispersed HDPE nanocomposites processed by rotational molding

“…[5] Inorganic contents like wollastonite, calcium carbonate, graphite, as well as silica have been studied in the rotational molding procedure. [6][7][8][9] Zepeda-Rodríguez et al utilized carbon nanofiber to prepare LMDPE/CNF nanocomposites by rotational molding and to determine the effect of CNF surface modification on the properties of rotomolded parts. Their results showed that the mechanical properties can be significantly modified with very low CNF content (1 wt% or less), especially the surface treated one.…”

Graphite Nanoplatelets from Waste Chicken Feathers

“…GNPs have high aspect ratio and surface area, low mass density, and excellent thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties [2,3,5,6,[8][9][10][12][13][14]. Recent application of GNPs in different polymers demonstrates improvement in thermomechanical characteristics [7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], electrical behavior [15,17,20,24], and corrosion resistance [25] of nanocomposites.…”

“…GNPs have been prepared previously, using different methods [5,8], but the exfoliation of intercalated graphite (GIC), followed by mechanical agitation, remains to be the most common approach [1,2,4,5,7,[9][10][11][13][14][15]17,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. In this method, GIC (natural graphite intercalated with acids or alkali metals) undergoes exfoliation by thermal treatment or microwave irradiation, to produce exfoliated graphite (EG).…”