Abstract
The effects of two types of carbon nanotubes, namely multiwall (MWCNT) and single-wall (SWCNT) carbon nanotube, on the thermal and mechanical properties of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) nanocomposites, have been investigated. ABS filled-CNT nanocomposites with various filler loadings of 5–10 wt% were properly produced by a solvent-free process in blend compounding at 190 °C. Compression moulded plates and extruded filaments were obtained at 190 °C and 230 °C, respectively. Melt flow index (MFI), shore hardness, Vicat temperature, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed to characterize and compared the different CNT nanocomposites. ABS/SWCNT composite filaments showed higher tensile properties (i.e., stiffness and strength), than ABS/MWCNT. The electrical resistivity of ABS/SWCNT and ABS/MWCNT filaments decreased to 0.19 Ω.cm and 0.65 Ω.cm for nanocomposites with 10 wt% of nanofillers; a power law was presented to describe the electrical resistivity of composites as a function of the CNTs content. A final comparative parameter regarding melt flow, stiffness and conductivity was also evaluated for understanding the combined effects of the nanofillers. SWCNT nanocomposites exhibited better overall cumulative results than MWCNT nanocomposites.
Highlights
In the past few decades, polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) have been a great expansion in research to fabricate multifunctional materials with remarkable properties, such as high mechanical, thermal and electrical performance [1,2]
We found that the electrical percolation threshold of nanocomposites was achieved at 0.9 wt% for multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) [16]
Preliminar evaluation and comparison has been performed on compression moulded specimens (CM), whereas in the following the extruded filaments have been deeply characterized in view of possible applications where polymeric materials with low electrical resistivity are required
Summary
In the past few decades, polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) have been a great expansion in research to fabricate multifunctional materials with remarkable properties, such as high mechanical, thermal and electrical performance [1,2]. The advantages of the utilization of polymers are due to their cost effectiveness, reproducibility, less suffering from corrosion and easy manufacturing processes [8]. Among these nanoparticles, a different form of carbon nanotubes and graphene have been commonly utilized due to their extraordinary intrinsic properties [9,10,11,12]. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is 2D nanomaterial which is rolled sheets of a hexagonal array
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