Issue 56, 2016, Issue in Progress

Mechanical and thermal behaviours of graphite flake-reinforced acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene composites and their correlation with entanglement density, adhesion, reinforcement and C factor

Abstract

Polymer composites are prepared by melt compounding of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) and graphite flakes (GFs). The fabrication of ABS/GF composites involves two steps: melt compounding of the ABS matrix and GFs in a vertical twin screw micro-compounder for a period of 3 minutes, and then sample preparation using a micro-injection moulding machine. The GF content is varied from 0 to 40 vol% with respect to the ABS matrix. The composites are characterized through tensile, flexural, impact, hardness and thermal conductivity. The thermo-mechanical behaviour is analysed by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The ABS/GF composites are found to have a gradual variation in the flexural modulus, with about 6, 25 and 92% increments in the flexural modulus on addition of 1, 9 and 40 vol% of GFs in the polymer matrix, respectively. But this addition of GFs exhibits a small decrement in the tensile strength and elongation at break. The impact strength is also sharply decreased (40% reduction with only 1% GF) with the increasing GF content in the ABS matrix. The DMTA results show an improvement in the storage modulus of ∼ 250% at room temperature, and the loss modulus also increases while the damping factor decreases as the GF content increases in the composite. The degree of entanglement increases whereas the reinforcement efficiency and C factor decrease for higher GF content. These are calculated from the data obtained by DMTA. The thermal conductivity of the composites shows an increasing behaviour with an increasing amount of GFs, as a ∼250% increment is observed at the 40 vol% loading of GFs. The addition of GFs also increases the melt viscosity, and the same trend is shown by the complex viscosity. Thermogravimetric analysis shows an improvement in the thermal decomposition temperature, and the char yield shows a 35% improvement at 40 vol% loading of GFs. Therefore the GF-reinforced ABS composite with improved thermal conductivity, heat stability, viscoelastic behaviour and flexural modulus can be a promising as well as a suitable composite material for making various electronic and electrical accessories including bipolar plates for fuel cell applications.

Graphical abstract: Mechanical and thermal behaviours of graphite flake-reinforced acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene composites and their correlation with entanglement density, adhesion, reinforcement and C factor

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Apr 2016
Accepted
11 May 2016
First published
12 May 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 50559-50571

Mechanical and thermal behaviours of graphite flake-reinforced acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene composites and their correlation with entanglement density, adhesion, reinforcement and C factor

A. K. Pandey, R. Kumar, V. S. Kachhavah and K. K. Kar, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 50559 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA09236E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements