Abstract
CO2 has been regarded as one of the most promising blowing agents for polystyrene (PS) foam due to its non-flammability, low price, nontoxicity, and eco-friendliness. However, the low solubility and fast diffusivity of CO2 in PS hinder its potential applications. In this study, an attapulgite (ATP)/polypyrrole (PPy) nanocomposite was developed using the in situ polymerization method to generate the hierarchical cell texture for the PS foam based on the supercritical CO2 foaming. The results demonstrated that the nanocomposite could act as an efficient CO2 capturer enabling the random release of it during the foaming process. In contrast to the pure PS foam, the ATP/PPy nanocomposite reinforced PS foam is endowed with high cell density (up to 1.9 × 106) and similar thermal conductivity as the neat PS foam, as well as high compression modulus. Therefore, the in situ polymerized ATP/PPy nanocomposite makes supercritical CO2 foaming desired candidate to replace the widely used fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons as PS blowing agents.
Highlights
Polystyrene (PS) foam is one of the most popular and low-cost polymeric foams that is widely used in many applications such as household materials, food containers, lightweight composites, toy models, and packaging [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The blowing agent applied during the foaming process is the key factor for achieving PS foam of good quality
Ammonium persulfate (APS), Sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP), (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (KH-550), and other chemicals were purchased from Aladdin Chemistry Co., Ltd
Summary
Polystyrene (PS) foam is one of the most popular and low-cost polymeric foams that is widely used in many applications such as household materials, food containers, lightweight composites, toy models, and packaging [1,2,3,4,5,6]. With the rising environmental concerns from currently used blowing agents such as fluorocarbons (FCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), carbon dioxide (CO2 ) has attracted tremendous interests from the scientific and industrial communities. CO2 has some drawbacks, in that it is usually processed at higher pressures and escapes from the polymer matrix, which induces processing instability and shaping contraction. These will result in an uncontrollable foam density and cell morphology of PS foam, leading to poor thermal and mechanical properties [11,12,13]. It is requisite to develop an efficient strategy to manage CO2 for PS foaming
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