Effect of Thermally-Reduced Graphene Nanoparticles on the Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Performance, Rheological Behavior and Thermal Stability of PP/PET Blend

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Polymer Engineering, Qom University of Technology, P.O. Box: 37195-1519, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Hypothesis: We investigated the effect of thermally-reduced graphene (TRG) nanosheets on electrical conductivity, dielectric constant, electromagnetic interference shielding performance, rheological behavior and thermal stability of polypropylene/polyethylene terephthalate (PP/PET) blend.
Methods: For this purpose, 50/50 PP/PET blends were prepared through melt compounding in presence of different volume fractions of TRG. The direct current (DC) conductivity, the AC electrical conductivity and EMI shielding effectiveness of composites were measured. The morphology of blends was examined by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
Findings: The morphology of the samples was co-continuous, and preferential localization of the nanoparticles led to a double percolated structure. This structure enhanced electrical conductivity of the samples considerably. The rheological analysis indicated that a percolated network was formed at low volume fractions of TRG. At 0.1 vol% loading, the conductivity of the composites satisfies the antistatic criterion (10−6 S/m) for thin films. At 2 vol% of graphene, a high electrical conductivity of
0.16 S/m was achieved which was considered sufficient for electronic device applications. The dielectric constant and the electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency (EMI SE) of the blends significantly increased with TRG addition. By incorporating 2 vol% of TRG, the dielectric constant increased from 4 (for neat sample) to 9×107 at 10 Hz and the EMI SE increased from 1 dB (for neat sample) to 42 dB at 10 GHz, satisfying the target value for commercial applications. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated that addition of TRG effectively enhanced the thermal stability of the samples. Incorporation of TRG not only increased the initial decomposition temperatures but also decreased the rate of decomposition. The enhanced thermal stability of the composites was attributed to the high aspect ratio of TRGs, which served as a barrier and prevented the emission of gaseous molecules during thermal degradation.

Keywords


1.Tjong S.C., Polymer Composites with Carbonaceous Nanofillers: Properties and Applications, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2012.
2.Joshi A., Bajaj A., Singh R., Alegaonkar P.S., Balasubramanian K., and Datar S., Graphene Nanoribbon–PVA Composite as EMI Shielding Material in the X Band, Nanotechnology, 24, 455705, 2013.
3.Joseph N., Singh S.K., Sirugudu R.K., Murthy V.R.K., Ananthakumar S., and Sebastian M.T., Effect of Silver Incorporation into PVDF-Barium Titanate Composites for EMI Shielding Applications, Mater. Res. Bull., 48, 1681-1687, 2013.
4.Pawar S.P., Biswas S., Kar G.P., and Bose S., High Frequency Millimetre Wave Absorbers Derived from Polymeric Nanocomposites, Polymer, 84, 398-419, 2016.
5.Dehghan N. and Taeb S., , Adverse Health Effects of Occupational Exposure to Radiofrequency Radiation in Airport Surveillance Radar Operators, Indian J. Occupational Environm. Med., 17, 7-11, 2013.
6.Degrave E., Meeusen B., Grivegnee A.R., Boniol M., and Autier P., I, Causes of Death Among Belgian Professional Military Radar Operators: A 37-Year Retrospective Cohort Study, Int. J. Cancer., 124, 945-951, 2009.
7.Mural P.K.S., Pawar S.P., Jayanthi S., Madras G., Sood A.K., and Bose S., , Engineering Nanostructures by Decorating Magnetic Nanoparticles onto Graphene Oxide Sheets to Shield Electromagnetic Radiations, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 7, 16266-16278, 2015.
8.Liu Z., Bai G., Huang Y., Ma Y., Du F., Li F., Guo T., and Chen Y., Reflection and Absorption Contributions to the Electromagnetic Interference Shielding of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube/Polyurethane Composites, Carbon, 45, 821-827, 2007.
9.Yuan Y., Yin W., Yang M., Xu F., Zhao X., Li J., Peng Q., He X., Du S., and Li Y., , Lightweight, Flexible and Strong Core-Shell Non-woven Fabrics Covered by Reduced Graphene Oxide for High-performance Electromagnetic Interference Shielding, Carbon, 130, 59-68, 2018.
10.Wang P., Chong H., Zhang J., Yang Y., and Lu H., Ultralow Electrical Percolation in Melt-Compounded Polymer Composites Based on Chemically Expanded Graphite, Compos. Sci. Technol., 158, 147-155, 2018.
11.Tong W., Zhang Y., Yu L., Luan X., An Q., Zhang Q., Lv F., Chu P. K., Shen B., and Zhang Z., Novel Method for the Fabrication of Flexible Film with Oriented Arrays of Graphene in Poly(vinylidene fluoride-cohexafluoropropylene) with Low Dielectric Loss, J. Phys. Chem. C, 118, 10567-10573, 2014.
12.Li M., Gao C., Hu H., and Zhao Z., Electrical Conductivity of Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide/Polymer Composites with a Segregated Structure, Carbon, 65, 371-373, 2013.
13.Mao C., Zhu Y., and Jiang W., Design of Electrical Conductive Composites: Tuning the Morphology to Improve the Electrical Properties of Graphene Filled Immiscible Polymer Blends, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 4, 5281-5286, 2012.
14.Kuila T., Bose S., Hong C.E., Uddin M.E., Khanra P., Kim N.H., and Lee J.H., Preparation of Functionalized Graphene/Linear Low Density Polyethylene Composites by a Solution Mixing Method, Carbon, 49, 1033-1051, 2011.
15.Kim H., Abdala A.A., and Macosko C.W., Graphene/Polymer Nanocomposites, Macromolecules, 43, 6515-6530, 2010.
16.Bansala T., Joshi M., Mukhopadhyay S., Doong R., and Chaudhary M., , Electrically Conducting Graphene-Based Polyurethane Nanocomposites for Microwave Shielding Applications in the Ku Band, J. Mater. Sci., 52, 1546-1560, 2017.
17.Zhang H.B., Zheng W.G., Yan Q., Yang Y., Wang J.W., Lu Z. H., Ji G.Y., and Yu Z.Z., Electrically Conductive Polyethylene Terephthalate/Graphene Nanocomposites Prepared by Melt Compounding, Polymer, 51, 1191-1196, 2010.
18.Araby S., Zaman I., Meng Q., Kawashima N., Michelmore A., Kuan H.C., Majewski P., Ma J., and Zhang L., Melt Compounding with Graphene to Develop Functional, High-Performance Elastomers, Nanotechnology, 24, 165601, 2013.
19.Inuwa I.M., Hassan A., Samsudin S.A., Kassim M.H.M., and Jawaid M., Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelets Reinforced Polyethylene Terephthalate/Polypropylene Composites, Polym. Compos., 35, 2029-2035, 2014.
20.Entezam M., Khonakdar H.A., and Yousefi A.A., On the Flame Resistance Behavior of PP/PET Blends in the Presence of Nanoclay and a Halogen-Free Flame Retardant, Macromol. Mater. Eng., 298, 1074-1084, 2013.
21.Utracki L.U., Polymer Blends Handbook, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2002.
22.Pham V. H., Dang T. T., Hur S. H., Kim E. J., and Chung J. S., Highly Conductive Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite Prepared by Self-Assembly of PMMA Latex and Graphene Oxide through Electrostatic Interaction, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 4, 2630-2636, 2012.
23.Yang J.H., Lin S.H., and Lee Y.D., Preparation and Characterization of Poly(L-Lactide)–Graphene Composites Using the in Situ Ring-Opening Polymerization of PLLA With Graphene as the Initiator, J. Mater. Chem., 22, 10805-10815, 2012.
24.Yeganeh J.K., Goharpey F., Moghimi E., Petekidis G., and Foudazi R., Controlling the Kinetics of Viscoelastic Phase Separation through Self-Assembly of Spherical Nanoparticles or Block Copolymers, Soft Matter, 10, 9270-9280, 2014.
25.Huang J., Mao C., Zhu Y., Jiang W., and Yang X., Control of Carbon Nanotubes at the Interface of a Co-continuous Immiscible Polymer Blend to Fabricate Conductive Composites with Ultralow Percolation Thresholds, Carbon, 73, 267 -274, 2014.
26.Yeganeh J.K., Goharpey F., and Foudazi R., Rheology and Morphology of Dynamically Asymmetric LCST Blends: Polystyrene/Poly(vinyl methyl ether), Macromolecules, 43, 8670-8685, 2010.
27.Du F., Scogna R.C., Zhou W., Brand S., Fischer J.E., and Winey K.I., Nanotube Networks in Polymer Nanocomposites: Rheology and Electrical Conductivity, Macromolecules, 37, 9048-9055, 2004.
28.Stankovich S., Dikin D.A., Dommett G.H.B., Kohlhaas K.M., Zimney E.J., Stach E.A., Piner R.D., Nguyen S.T., and Ruoff R.S., Graphene-Based Composite Materials, Nature, 442, 282-286, 2006.
29.Chung D.D.L., Electrical Applications of Carbon Materials, J. Mater. Sci., 39, 2645-2661, 2004.
30.Lan Y., Liu H., Cao X., Zhao S., Dai K., Yan X., Zheng G., Liu C., Shen C., and Guo Z., Electrically Conductive Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Polypropylene Nanocomposites with Selectively Distributed Graphene, Polymer, 97, 11-19, 2016.
31.Vleminckx G., Bose S., Leys J., Vermant J., Wubbenhorst M., Abdala A.A., Macosko C., and Moldenaers P., Effect of Thermally Reduced Graphene Sheets on the Phase Behavior, Morphology, and Electrical Conductivity in Poly[(r-methyl styrene)-co-(acrylonitrile)/poly(methyl-methacrylate) Blends, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 3, 3172-3180, 2011.
32.Li Y.C., Tjong S.C., and Li R.K.Y., Electrical Conductivity and Dielectric Response of Poly(vinylidenefluoride)–Graphite Nanoplatelet Composites, Synth. Metal., 160, 1912-1919, 2010.
33.He F., Lau S., Chan H.L., and Fan J., High Dielectric Permittivity and Low Percolation Threshold in Nanocomposites Based on Poly(vinylidene fluoride) and Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplates, Adv. Mater., 21, 710-715, 2009.
34.Li M., Huang X., Wu C., Xu H., Jiang P., and Tanaka T.,., Fabrication of Two-Dimensional Hybrid Sheets By Decorating Insulating PANI on Reduced Graphene Oxide for Polymer Nanocomposites with Low Dielectric Loss and High Dielectric Constant, J. Mater. Chem., 22, 23477-23484, 2012.
35.Wu C., Huang X., Xie L., Wu X., Yu J., and Jiang P., Morphology-Controllable Graphene–TiO2 Nanorod Hybrid Nanostructures for Polymer Composites with High Dielectric Performance, J. Mater. Chem., 21, 17729-17736, 2011.
36.Wang D., Zhou T., Zha J. W., Zhao J., Shi C.Y., Dang Z.M., Functionalized Graphene–BaTiO3/Ferroelectric Polymer Nanodielectric Composites with High Permittivity, Low Dielectric Loss, and Low Percolation Threshold, J. Mater. Chem. A, 1, 6162-6168, 2013.
37.Saini P., Choudhary V., Singh B.P., Mathur R.B., and Dhawan S.K., Enhanced Microwave Absorption Behavior of Polyaniline-CNT/Polystyrene Blend in 12.4–18.0 GHz Range, Synth. Metal., 161, 1522-1526, 2011.
38.Li N., Huang Y., Du F., He X., Lin X., Gao H., Ma Y., Li F., Chen Y., and Eklund P.C., Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Epoxy Composites, Nano Lett., 6, 1141-1145, 2006.
39.Liang J., Wang Y., Huang Y., Ma Y., Liu Z., Cai J., Zhang C., Gao H., and Chen Y., Electromagnetic Interference Shielding of Graphene/Epoxy Composites, Carbon, 47, 922-925, 2009.
40.Ammala A., Bell C., and Dean K., , Poly(ethylene terephthalate) clay nanocomposites: Improved Dispersion Based on an Aqueous Ionomer, Compos. Sci. Technol., 68, 1328-1337, 2008.
41.Tang Y., Hu Y., Song L., Zong R., Gui Z., Chen Z., and Fan W., Preparation and Thermal Stability of Polypropylene/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites, Polym. Degrad. Stabil., 82, 127-131, 2003.
42.Cai D., Jin J., Yusoh K., Rafiq R., Song M., High Performance Polyurethane/Functionalized Graphene Nanocomposites with Improved Mechanical and Thermal Properties, Compos. Sci. Technol., 72, 702-707, 2012.
43.Song P., Cao Z., Cai Y., Zhao L., Fang Z., and Fu S., , Fabrication of Exfoliated Graphene-Based Polypropylene Nanocomposites with Enhanced Mechanical and Thermal Properties, Polymer, 52, 4001-4010, 2011.
44.Liang J. Z., Wang J. Z., Tsui G. C. P., and Tang, C.Y., , Thermal Decomposition Kinetics of Polypropylene Composites Filled with Graphene Nanoplatelets, Polym. Test., 48, 97-103, 201