Graphene from waste tire by recycling technique for cost-effective and light-weight automotive plastic part production

Abstract

Light weight vehicle design is a principal keystone to improving fuel efficiency and vehicle performance whilst reducing adverse environmental impacts. At this point, graphene is a solution with a high potential to further reduce vehicle weight and improve mechanical and thermal properties. With a unique combination of mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, graphene shows great potential for exploitation in the automotive industry. In the present work, we developed a technology for the production of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) from recycled carbon black obtained from the pyrolysis of waste tire by using recycling and upcycling technology. This graphene is comparably cheaper than available ones in the market. This graphene as a reinforcing and nucleating agent was used to reduce glass fiber amount for the production of cost-effective and light-weight automotive plastic composite part by extrusion and injection techniques. With this newly developed compound, polyamide 66 (PA66) based automotive part was produced by the integration of 1 wt% GNP and providing 10% weight reduction. Consequently, this multidisciplinary work will favor the integration of new knowledge and will ensure significant innovation potential in the field of new thermoplastic based composites for the automotive industry.