A new eco‐friendly green composite for antistatic packaging: Green low‐density polyethylene/glassy carbon

Abstract

Antistatic packages are used to protect and storage sensitive electronic compounds, plates, and integrated circuit. To produce antistatic packages, polymers must have good mechanical properties and low electrical resistivity to prevent the accumulation of static electricity and damage the stored product. Many polymers can be used to produce packages, especially polyolefins. In the field of sustainable packaging, green low‐density polyethylene (green LDPE) has been highlighting in recent years due to its origin: sugar cane. Thus, it is a green polymer that has the same properties as LDPE obtained from petroleum. Due to its insulating character, it is necessary the addition of conductive fillers, thus in this work, glassy carbon (GC) was used as a conductive filler. GC is a carbon material made from furfuryl alcohol resin obtained from rice husk or sugar cane, it is a conductive material and can decrease the electrical resistivity of the green LDPE/GC composite, making it possible to use as an antistatic packaging. Eco‐friendly green composites based on green LDPE/GC with different contents of GC (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) were prepared using a thermokinetic homogenizer. The green composites were characterized by mechanical and thermal properties, structural characteristics, water vapor permeability, optical properties, and impedance spectroscopy. The results indicate that the use of green LDPE/GC composites with low concentrations of GC (0.1 wt%) is feasible for the preparation of antistatic packaging since the green composites showed low electrical resistivity and improvement in elastic modulus.

Molecular Design of Lignin-Derived Side-Chain Phenolic Polymers toward Functional Radical Scavenging Materials with Antioxidant and Antistatic Properties

“…The classical approach to making plastics more antistatic is by incorporating additives to make the material more conductive (e.g., by doping with metals, carbon powders, or blending with conductive polymers). 42 On the other hand, most insulators create surface charges upon contact. Therefore, the poly-(HEMA-co-DCAMA) polymers synthesized in this work show unique properties as they are both an insulator (nonconductive) and antistatic.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example whereby an insulating homopolymer also exhibits a strong antistatic effect without adding additional additives. The classical approach to making plastics more antistatic is by incorporating additives to make the material more conductive (e.g., by doping with metals, carbon powders, or blending with conductive polymers) . On the other hand, most insulators create surface charges upon contact.…”

Effect of glassy carbon addition and photodegradation on the biodegradation in aqueous medium of poly (3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate)/glassy carbon green composites

“…Microscale GC particles has recently been used as a promising alternative of antistatic agent to replace carbon black (CB) and other carbon-based materials (such as graphene and CNT) in the obtainment of PHBV composites with dissipative properties. 26,33 GC does not present high percolation thresholds in polymeric matrix as it is commonly verified with CB, indicating that it is not necessary the addition of high GC contents to impart antistatic properties to electrically insulating polymers avoiding deterioration of their mechanical and rheological properties. 34 The use of CB may generate a large amount of suspended nanoparticles in the air, leading to the risk of generating respiratory problems.…”

Synthesis and application properties ofpolyaniline‐amino‐carbonnanotube antistatic agents

“…Surfactant antistatic agents, polymer‐type antistatic agents, conductive filler‐type antistatic agents, and hybrid agents are the four types of antistatic agents 6–11 . However, surface‐active agent‐type antistatic agents' performance is susceptible to environmental humidity, and polymer‐type antistatic agents can achieve antistatic effects only when added in higher amounts 5,12,13 .…”