The effect of bio-carbon addition on the electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of polyvinyl alcohol/biochar composites

Abstract

The composites of polyvinyl alcohol and bio-carbon (i.e. biochar) were prepared by a solution casting method to investigate their electrical conductivity and mechanical and thermal properties. The polyvinyl alcohol/biochar composites filled with 2 wt% and 10 wt% biochar exhibit a similar electrical conductivity to most carbon nanotube and graphene reinforced polyvinyl alcohol composites. Results of mechanical tests indicate that addition of the biochar reduced the tensile strength of the polyvinyl alcohol/biochar composites. However, the tensile modulus and storage modulus above the glass transition temperature were improved through the addition of biochar. The results of thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry indicated that addition of biochar increased the thermal decomposition temperature of polyvinyl alcohol/biochar composites. These results demonstrate that biochar holds great potential for replacing the carbon nanotubes and graphene as a filler of polymers in electrical applications.

Sustainable biocarbon as an alternative of traditional fillers for poly(butylene terephthalate)‐based composites: Thermo‐oxidative aging and durability

“…The tensile strength and flexural strength of the PBT composites performance also follows similar trends as seen in the modulus, that is, BC/PBT < talc/PBT < GF/PBT. The low in tensile strength after incorporation of BC was also reported in PP and PVA composites; this can be attributed to the lack of surface functional groups and the different polarities of BC with the polymer. The large particle sizes of BC in polymer can increase the stress concentration factors which may cause detrimental effects to the mechanical properties.…”

“…The feasibility of this material suggests it possesses a high potential to create a large range of polymer biocomposites for many applications. The incorporation of BC fillers in polymer composites has been found to improve the tensile modulus and flammability of polypropylene (PP), electrical conductivity of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), tensile properties of poly(lactic acid) (PLA), impact strength, and heat deflection temperature (HDT) of polyamide (PA) 6, 10 . Lou et al .…”

FIB-SEM Three-Dimensional Tomography for Characterization of Carbon-Based Materials

“…In the past couple of decades, various carbon-based materials and their applications have been rapidly developed and they have played an important role in modern material sciences. Especially, the utilizations of inexpensive and sustainable carbon materials have been extensively studied for renewable energy storage (e.g., supercapacitors [1][2][3][4][5] and batteries [6][7][8]), adsorbent (e.g., soil amendment [9][10][11], water purification [12][13][14], and gas separation [15][16][17][18]), composites with enhanced certain properties (e.g., thermal and mechanical enhancement) [19][20][21][22], and catalysts of fuel cells [23] and other chemical reactions [24,25]. erefore, along with the electrochemical, chemical, and mechanical properties, it is vital to investigate and further optimize or control the morphologies and internal structural features of the versatile carbon-based materials through design, synthesis, and improvement steps.…”

Towards Traditional Carbon Fillers: Biochar-Based Reinforced Plastic

“…Poly(ethylene) and poly(propylene) are not the only polyolefins used for the production of carbon-based composites. Other largely used polyolefin matrices were poly(vinyl alcohol) and its derivatives [81,82] and poly(acrylonitrile) [83]. Both of those two polymeric hosts are used for the realisation of piezo sensors due to their elastic properties.…”