pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S04 - Polymers and Sustainability
Oral Presentation
 
 

Recycling of Multilayer Polymer Packaging containing aluminum

da Veiga Augusto (1), Talabi Segun Isaac (1), Gomes Tiago de Sá (2), Fiori Márcio Antônio (3), Lucas Alessandra de Almeida (1)*

(1) UFSCar - São Paulo - Brazil, (2) UFSCar Unochapeco - São Paulo - Brazil, (3) Unochapeco - São Paulo - Brazil

This study aimed to evaluate the production of electrical conductive composites from the recycling of polyethylene-aluminum (PE-Al) and polyethylene-aluminum-poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PE-Al-PET) films, from multilayer packages, increasing their added value. PE-Al films came from packages composed by paper card (average of 75 wt.%), aluminum (average of 5 wt.%.) and low-density polyethylene, LDPE plus a low amount of copolymer with methacrylic acid, PEMAA (average of 20 wt.% of PE+PEMAA). So, a 20wt% of Al is presented in this film. PE-Al-PET packages contained ca. 10 wt% of Al. The general idea was to use Al as a conductive filler for polymer composites. A further increase in its electrical conductivity was achieved using aluminum pesence in synergy with different geometries of carbon fillers, as expanded nanographite (nGE) and carbon black (CB). A coating technique was applied to coat the micronized powder and flakes of aluminum containing films with different amounts of nGE and CB. This technique consists of applying a high shear on solid state on the polymer and fillers and can be realized at low temperatures in a torque rheometer, a double screw extruder without die or in a thermokinetic mixer. After coating, powder and flakes were hot-pressed in 2mm thick plates and had their electrical resistivity evaluated. Preliminary results indicated that low percolation thresholds were achieved, ca. 0.5 vol% of carbon fillers, with electrical resistivity in the order of 10^4 Ohm.cm. This plates are good candidates for ESD protection applications. Further melt processing fter coating resulted in the disruption of the electrical percolation threshold, due to the alignment of the filler under shear flow experienced during extrusion and injection molding process.