Abstract
This study intends to show the potential application of a non-recyclable plastic waste towards the development of electrically conductive nanocomposites. Herein, the conductive nanofiller and binding matrix are carbon nanotubes (CNT) and polystyrene (PS), respectively, and the waste material is a plastic foam consisting of mainly vulcanized nitrile butadiene rubber and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Two nanocomposite systems, i.e., PS/Waste/CNT and PS/CNT, with different compositions were melt-blended in a mixer and characterized for electrical properties. Higher electrical conduction and improved electromagnetic interference shielding performance in PS/Waste/CNT system indicated better conductive network of CNTs. For instance, at 1.0 wt.% CNT loading, the PS/Waste/CNT nanocomposites with the plastic waste content of 30 and 50 wt.% conducted electricity 3 and 4 orders of magnitude higher than the PS/CNT nanocomposite, respectively. More importantly, incorporation of the plastic waste (50 wt.%) reduced the electrical percolation threshold by 30% in comparison with the PS/CNT nanocomposite. The enhanced network of CNTs in PS/Waste/CNT samples was attributed to double percolation morphology, evidenced by optical images and rheological tests, caused by the excluded volume effect of the plastic waste. Indeed, due to its high content of vulcanized rubber, the plastic waste did not melt during the blending process. As a result, CNTs concentrated in the PS phase, forming a denser interconnected network in PS/Waste/CNT samples.
Highlights
The current technologies of plastic waste management are not effective nor environmentally friendly [1]
ground tire rubber (GTR) particles with carbon nanotube (CNT) at an extremely high speed (2400 rpm) and molding at a high temperature of 170 ◦ C and a pressure of 50 MPa. They obtained segregated-structured composite with superior electrical conductivity of 109.3 S/m and specific electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness of 56 dB/mm at 5.0 wt.% CNT loading. Such a highperformance material could find a huge range of applications in flexible electronic devices; segregated morphologies suffer from poor interfacial adhesion [32,33,34], leading to inferior mechanical properties, and their strategy only works for processable plastic waste
This property of the waste material induces excluded volume effect which can improve the electrical properties of a CNT-filled polymer nanocomposite through the formation of double percolation morphology
Summary
The current technologies of plastic waste management are not effective nor environmentally friendly [1]. They obtained segregated-structured composite with superior electrical conductivity of 109.3 S/m and specific EMI shielding effectiveness of 56 dB/mm at 5.0 wt.% CNT loading Such a highperformance material could find a huge range of applications in flexible electronic devices; segregated morphologies suffer from poor interfacial adhesion [32,33,34], leading to inferior mechanical properties, and their strategy only works for processable plastic waste (i.e., the samples that they were able to mold). Due to the high content of vulcanized rubber, the plastic waste material did not melt during the mixing process This property of the waste material induces excluded volume effect which can improve the electrical properties of a CNT-filled polymer nanocomposite through the formation of double percolation morphology. Dramatically lower electrical percolation threshold forofCNTs and much higher electrical conduction in the presence of the plastic waste
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