Abstract
Influenced by recent COVID-19, wearing face masks to block the spread of the epidemic has become the simplest and most effective way. However, after the people wear masks, thousands of tons of medical waste by used disposable masks will be generated every day in the world, causing great pressure on the environment. Herein, conductive polymer composites are fabricated by simple melt blending of mask fragments (mask polypropylene, short for mPP) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). MWNTs were used as modifiers for composites because of their high strength and high conductivity. The crystalline structure, mechanical, electrical and thermal enhancement effect of the composites were investigated. MWNTs with high thermal stability acted the role of promoting the crystallisation of mPP by expediting the crystalline nucleation, leading to the improvement of amount for crystalline nucleus. MWNTs fibers interpenetrate with each other in mPP matrix to form conducting network. With 2.0 wt% MWNTs loading, the tensile strength and electrical conductivity of the composites were increased by 809% and 7 orders of magnitude. MWNTs fibers interpenetrate with each other in mPP matrix to form conducting network. Thus, more conducting paths were constructed to transport carriers. The findings may open a way for high value utilization of the disposable masks.
Highlights
Influenced by recent COVID-19, wearing face masks to block the spread of the epidemic has become the simplest and most effective way [1]
The melt flow indexer (MFI) of the composites Rapidly decreased with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) loading, indicating that the MWNTs fillers with large aspect ratio would reduce the melt fluidity of composites
Conductive polymer composites are fabricated by simple melt blending of mPP and MWNTs
Summary
Influenced by recent COVID-19, wearing face masks to block the spread of the epidemic has become the simplest and most effective way [1]. Disposable face masks; multi-walled carbon nanotubes; crystalline structure; mechanical enhancement effect; conducting network On the other hand, compared with neat PP, the molecular weight of the recycled PP decreases due to thermal oxidative degradation, leading to the lower melt viscosity in the preparation of the composites, in which the MWNTs would be easier to uniformly dispersed in recycled PP matrix, leading to a higher increase of mechanical property of the composites.
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