Towards the development of poly(phenylene sulphide) based nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical, electrical and tribological properties

Abstract

Novel poly(phenylene sulphide) (PPS) nanocomposites reinforced with an aminated derivative (PPS-NH2) covalently attached to acid-treated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were prepared via simple melt-blending technique. Their morphology, viscoelastic behaviour, electrical conductivity, mechanical and tribological properties were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the grafting process was effective in uniformly dispersing the SWCNTs within the matrix. The storage and loss moduli as a function of frequency increased with the SWCNT content, tending to a plateau in the low-frequency regime. The electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites was considerably enhanced in the range 0.1-0.5 wt% SWCNTs; electrical and rheological percolation thresholds occurred at similar nanotube concentrations. Mechanical tests demonstrated that with only 1.0 wt% SWCNTs the Young's modulus and tensile strength of the matrix improved by 51 and 37%, respectively, without decrement in toughness, ascribed to a very efficient load transfer. A moderate decrease in the friction coefficient and a 75% reduction in wear rate were found for the abovementioned nanotube loading, indicating that PPS-NH2-g-SWCNTs are good tribological additives for thermoplastic polymers. Based on the promising results obtained in this work, it is expected that these nanofillers will be used to develop highperformance thermoplastic/CNT nanocomposites for structural applications.

Olivine Particle Reinforced Polyphenylene Sulfide Matrix Composites

“…Application areas of PPS are increasing due to its excellent properties. The most important applications areas are aeronautic, aircraft, automobile, rail vehicle, oil rings and electronics [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

Preparation and characterization of polyphenylene sulfide nanocomposites

“…For instance, in the case of raw MWCNTs (Gonzalez-Dominguez et al, 2012), the dense and entangled nanotube bundles developed at high loadings confine the drawn fibration process of the matrix, leading to a reduction in ductility, hence a significant decrease of the impact strength and premature system failure (Figure 7.7, circles). Surprisingly, although the addition of CNTs generally has a positive effect on the flexural performance (Jiang et al, 2012;Diez-Pascual and Naffakh, 2012c;Cho, 2008), the incorporation of expanded graphite (Zhao et al, 2007), inorganic spherical nanoparticles such as TiO 2 , CuO, ZnO, or SiC (Bahadur and Sunkara, 2005) or clays (Zou et al, 2006) typically results in a decrement in these properties, probably related to stress concentrations caused by nanofiller agglomerates or aggregates, indicating again that one-dimensional carbon nanofillers are the most effective in enhancing the matrix stiffness and strength. Thus, it increases strongly up to 2 wt% loading, showing ~36% increment, and then decreases slightly.…”

“…Second, organic nanofillers such as CNTs Naffakh, 2012c;Cho, 2008;Sebastian et al, 2013) and CNFs (Cho and Bahadur, 2007) have been incorporated to increase the material stiffness and strength. CNTs are ideal for reinforcing polymers owed to their superior mechanical properties combined with their very high aspect ratio that ensures an extremely large interface area between the filler and the matrix phases.…”

Electrical and rheological percolation behavior of multiwalled carbon nanotube-reinforced poly(phenylene sulfide) composites

“…The CNT content at which this transition occurs is defined as the rheological percolation threshold. [23][24][25][26] Also, the electrical percolation threshold can be estimated by measuring the rheological counterpart because both of them reflect the formation of an MWCNT network, though these two values are different, depending on the specific composite system. 16 In this study, MWCNT-reinforced PPS was prepared by melt mixing process in a twin extruder.…”