Study Analysis of Thermal, Dielectric, and Functional Characteristics of an Ethylene Polyethylene Diene Monomer Blended with End-of-Life Tire Microparticles Amounts

Abstract

The recycling and disposal of disused tires is a topic of great concern to today’s companies, researchers, and society in general. In this sense, our research aims to recycle end-of-life tires (GTRs) through the separation of the fraction of vulcanized rubber from the other compounds in order to later grind this fraction and separate it into lower particle sizes. Finally, we aim to incorporate these GTR particles as a filler of an ethylene-polyethylene-diene monomer (EPDM). The obtained composites with EPDM and GTR are tested (5%, 10%, 20%) comparing these values with neat EPDM as a control sample. Thermal tests such as differential calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) as well as dielectric tests (DEA) are performed in order to characterize these materials and check their viability as dielectric or semiconductor, for industrial use. It is checked how the presence of GTR increases functional properties such as conductivity/permittivity. The influence of temperature (40 to 120 °C) and addition of GTR particles in electrical properties has also been analyzed. The dielectric behavior of these composites is fully characterized, analyzing the different types of relaxation with increasing frequency (10 mHz to 3 MHz), using the electric modulus, and Argand diagrams among other measures. The influence of GTR and temperature in the dielectric and thermal behavior of these materials has been analyzed, where CB of GTR creates interfacial polarization phenomena in the dielectric behavior of the composite and increases the permittivity (real and imaginary) as well as the conductivity. Finally, with these obtained properties, the possible application of EPDM/GTR composites as industrial dielectrics has been studied.

Dielectric, Thermal and Water Absorption Properties of Some EPDM/Flax Fiber Composites

“…The values of dielectric constant for EPDM/flax composites increase gradually with the flax loading. A similar conclusion was reported by Marin-Genesca and coworkers for ethylene propylene diene monomer blended with grinding recycled tire microparticles [ 28 ]. We believe that the reactive polar groups of the flax fibers cause an intense dipolar activity and consequently boost the dielectric constant of EPDM/flax composites.…”

“…The E0 sample exhibits the lowest magnitude of ε′ due to the low polarity of the neat polymer backbone [ 29 ]. Besides, the low value of dielectric constant for neat EPDM was observed by other authors [ 28 , 29 ]. The values of dielectric constant for EPDM/flax composites increase gradually with the flax loading.…”

“…The electrical properties of the composites consisting of two or more phases can also be different depending on the properties of phases. In addition, the presence of fillers in the host polymers creates the conditions for Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) polarization due to the difference between the intrinsic electrical properties of the media [ 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

Solid State Orientation of Thermoplastic Vulcanizates

“…All EPDM blends shared its characteristic peaks, evident by the presence of the glass transition temperature ( T g ) at ≈−50 °C, followed by a broad feature that ended with another endothermic peak at (≈40 °C), the latter is attributed to melting of crystallites grown during storage. [ 35 ] The occurrence/disappearance of this peak is thought to be related to the phase mixing quality within the samples. At higher temperatures, blends exhibited a reversible peak at 165 °C, correlating to the T m of PP.…”

Influence of Tire Rubber Particles Addition in Different Branching Degrees Polyethylene Matrix Composites on Physical and Structural Behavior

“…Recent research works explore waste composite polymeric materials as potential materials for use in electrical insulation [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], generally for low insulation requirements. The present research is shown the structural-dielectric behavior from mixtures using one of the most used polymers in the industry such as polyethylene, in its most common varieties: high density (HDPE) and low density (LDPE).…”