Alhamidi A, Anis A, Al-Zahrani SM, Bashir Z, Alrashed MM. Conductive Plastics from Al Platelets in a PBT-PET Polyester Blend Having Co-Continuous Morphology.
Polymers (Basel) 2022;
14:1092. [PMID:
35335423 PMCID:
PMC8951038 DOI:
10.3390/polym14061092]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Revised: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Conductive plastics are made by placing conductive fillers in polymer matrices. It is known that a conductive filler in a binary polymer blend with a co-continuous morphology is more effective than in a single polymer, because it aids the formation of a 'segregated conductive network'. We embedded a relatively low-cost conductive filler, aluminium nano platelets, in a 60/40 PBT/PET polymer blend. While 25 vol.% of the Al nanoplatelets when placed in a single polymer (PET) gave a material with the resistivity of an insulator (1014 Ωcm), the same Al nano platelets in the 60/40 PBT/PET blend reduced the resistivity to 7.2 × 107 Ωcm, which is in the category of an electrostatic charge dissipation material. While PET tends to give amorphous articles, the 60/40 PBT/PET blends crystallised in the time scale of the injection moulding and hence the conductive articles had dimensional stability above the Tg of PET.
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