Abstract
In this study, nanocomposites of polypropylene (PP) with various loadings of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) were formed by masterbatch dilution/mixing approach from individual masterbatches PP-MWCNT and PP-GnP. Melt mixing on a twin-screw extruder at two different processing temperatures was followed by characterization of morphology by transmitted-light microscopy including the statistical analysis of agglomeration behavior. The influence of processing temperature and weight fractions of both nanofillers on the dispersion quality is reported. Thermal properties of the nanocomposites investigated by DSC and TGA show sensitivity to the nanofillers weight fraction ratio and to processing conditions. Electrical conductivity is observed to increase up to an order of magnitude with the concentration of each nanofiller increasing from 0.5 wt % to 1.0 wt %. This is related with a decrease of electrical conductivity observed for unequal concentration of both nanofillers. This particular behavior shows the increase of electrical properties for higher MWCNT loadings and the increase of thermo-mechanical properties for higher GnP loadings. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
