pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S08 - Polymer blends and alloys
Oral Presentation
 
 

Rheological and Electrical Properties of amorphous PLA through generation of fibre-like oriented crystal network and incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Mohammadi Mojtaba (1)*, Nofar Mohammadreza (2), Heuzey Marie-Claude (3), Carreau Pierre J. (4)

(1) Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnique Montreal - QC - Canada, (2) Sustainable and Green Plastics Laboratory - Istanbul - Turkey, (3) Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnique Montreal - Quebec - Canada, (4) Chemical Engineering Department - Quebec - Canada

Blend nanocomposites of amorphous polylactide (aPLA; high and low molecular weight)/ semicrystalline polylactide (scPLA; high molecular weight with high crystallinity)-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared by a twin-screw extruder below the melting point of scPLA. The maximum weight percent of CNTs in the blend was 0.9 wt%. The extrudates were either pelletized immediately or after drawing them at a drawing ratio of around 10. In the neat blend (aPLA/scPLA), While the rheological properties of the undrawn samples were improved, those of the drawn samples were much more significantly increased, as seen by the small amplitude oscillatory shear rheological behaviour of the samples. scPLA/MWCNTs masterbatch generated a stiffer reinforcing phase and expanded the processing window. This is mainly because more crystallites could be presented as MWCNTs induced the crystallinity of scPLA. What is more, the electrical conductivity of these blend nanocomposites was investigated, and the results showed that blending scPLA/MWCNTs below the melting point to keep most of the crystallites, makes an obstacle for the electrical path by encapsulating of MWCNTs in the crystallites of scPLA (electrical conductivity of ~10^-13 Ω/cm for aPLA/ scPLA-3 wt% MWCNTs). Increasing the temperature during compression molding (higher the melting point of scPLA; to prepare the sheets for electrical conductivity measurements) seemed to remove that obstacle in the low molecular weight aPLA (electrical conductivity of ~10^-7 Ω/cm for aPLA/ scPLA-3 wt% MWCNTs). In this case, the electrical conductivity is comparable with neat nanocomposites of aPLA/1 wt% CNT with the electrical conductivity of ~10^-6 Ω/cm.