Development of high-flowability melt PPS-based composites through blending with g-C3N4

Abstract

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), commonly used as a core material for high-temperature flue gas treatment, exhibits elevated viscosity when processed even at temperature exceeding 280 °C. In this study, a novel high-flowability PPS-based composite was fabricated through the incorporation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) via a well-established melt extrusion procedure. The enhancement of flowability in PPS was verified, and the material's texture structures and fundamental properties of composites with varying contents were determined. The composites exhibit well-dispersed g-C3N4, a significant reduction in shear viscosity (>10 %), a notable increase in melt index (>30 %), improved crystallinity, and comparable or superior performance compared to pure PPS. When the g-C3N4 was introduced into the PPS matrix, a phase-separated composite structure was formed. This structure reduces the entanglement degree between the PPS molecular chains and provides more space for free-movement of the PPS chains, and thus the improvement in flowability for the composites can be clearly demonstrated. Therefore, g-C3N4 can be used as a novel flow modifier to enhance the flowability and stability of PPS resin without compromising its fundamental properties, which offers significant prospects for improving productivity, optimizing energy usage, and managing costs for PPS-based products.