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Supercritical Fluids-Assisted Processing Using CO2 Foaming to Enhance the Dispersion of Nanofillers in Poly(butylene succinate)-Based Nanocomposites and the Conductivity

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Abstract

With the rapid development of electronic information technology, traditional metal conductive materials can no longer satisfy the needs of a wider industry. Poly(butylene succinate)/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PBS/CNT) conductive polymer nanocomposites with varied CNT content were prepared by a HAAKE torque rheometer. The addition of CNT significantly improved the crystallization, viscoelasticity, and mechanical properties as well as thermal and electrical conductivity. Conductivity of the PBS/CNT nanocomposite with 5 wt% CNT increased from 8.23 × 10–15 S m−1 of pure PBS to 33.3 S m−1, an increase of 16 orders of magnitude. Moreover, the electrical percolation threshold \({\mathrm{\varphi }}_{\mathrm{c}}\) of the PBS/CNT nanocomposites was 2.8 wt% and the critical index was 1.56, showing that the conductive network structure was between 2 and 3D and 2D network structure dominated. To further improve the conductivity, microcellular foams were successfully fabricated by batch foaming with supercritical fluids (scCO2). The electrical conductivity of the PBS/CNT foam with 5 wt% CNT reached 67.8 S m−1 and it was 104% higher than the corresponding solid nanocomposite.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51573063 and No. 21174044), Scientific Research Foundation of Fujian University of Technology (GY-Z19048), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2020J05190 and 2020J02007), Open Fund of Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration/Beijing for Bamboo and Rattan Science and Technology (ICBR-2020-14), Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials and Products of Universities in Fujian (Fujian University of Technology (KF-C19011).

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2020J05190 and 2020J02007), Open Fund of Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration/Beijing for Bamboo and Rattan Science and Technology (ICBR-2020-14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials and Products, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, 350118, China

    An Huang, Xincheng Song, Fan Liu, Haokun Wang, Lihong Geng, Qizhong Yi & Xiangfang Peng

  2. Department of Biomaterials, International Center for Bamboo and Rattan, Beijing, 100102, China

    Hankun Wang

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  1. An Huang
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Huang, A., Song, X., Liu, F. et al. Supercritical Fluids-Assisted Processing Using CO2 Foaming to Enhance the Dispersion of Nanofillers in Poly(butylene succinate)-Based Nanocomposites and the Conductivity. J Polym Environ 30, 3063–3077 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-022-02389-2

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