pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S09 - Polymer nanocomposites
Poster Presentation
 
 

Modification of PP with CNT as painting agent: influence on performance of injected pieces

Rosales Caren (1)*

(1) Universidad Nacional Mar del Plata, Argentina - Buenos Aires - Argentina

From an industrial point of view, final plastic products should meet both certain structural requirements and adequate aesthetic quality. Manufactured pieces are commonly subjected to different surface finishing techniques to achieve desired aesthetic requirements, being the electrostatic painting the most efficient procedure. However, this technique cannot be directly applied in polymers due to their insulating properties. Plastic pieces need to be previously prepared by painting them with a primer, adding a further stage to the production cycle. To avoid this extra step, a painting agent could be added to the polymer to modify its electrical properties and make it suitable to be directly electrostatic painted. In this sense, carbon nanotubes (CNT) were proposed in this work as an electrostatic painting assistant for polypropylene (PP) injected pieces. The present work aims to evaluate how the addition of CNT to increase the panting transfer efficiency, influences the mechanical performance of intricate PP injected moldings.Then a complete characterization is presented, including mechanical properties and the morphology induced by processing. It was characterized at different locations (weld-line and injection point zones) of the moldings to assess the influence of in-homogeneities and flow pattern upon the dielectric behavior of the molded boxes and of double gated injection molded PP/CNT parts is presented. Finally, dielectric and electric properties and relaxation phenomena of the composite were investigated Differences in CNT orientation were found along the pieces: while a CNT orientation profile was observed along the thickness of the injected part induced by the molding thermo-mechanical field, CNT were seen randomly distributed in the weld line zone. These dissimilar orientations induced a difference of an order of magnitude in the electrical properties of the part that would result in distinct paint transfer efficiency in the same piece.