Thermal, Mechanical, and dielectric properties of Injection Molded Graphene Nanocomposites Based on ABS/PC and ABS/PP Blends

In this research, graphene nanocomposites of poly (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene)/polycarbonate (ABS/PC) and ABS/polypropylene (ABS/PP) blends were prepared by melt blending and their thermal and mechanical properties were studied. The incorporation of graphene into ABS/PC and ABS/PP blends caused a significant decrease of their melt flow index values. Although graphene led to reduction of onset degradation temperature (T-onset) and maximum degradation rate temperature (T-peak) of ABS/PC blends, and mainly of pure PC, the obtained residue from thermogravimetric analysis showed an increase. The thermal degradation of PC phase, in PC-rich blends, was completed at higher temperatures. In ABS/PP blends, the effect of graphene was an outstanding increase of Tonset and Tpeak in the case of pure PP, while increasing the residue at all proportions. Regarding the Young's modulus, in ABS/PC blends the result of the addition of graphene was dependent on the blend composition. In ABS/PP hybrids, the elastic modulus increased by the incorporation of graphene and this increase, reached anabout 43% in pure PP. The addition of graphene to pure ABS, pure PP and their blend 50/50 w/w resulted in an increasing trend of the dielectric constant (kappa'), whereas the loss factor (tan delta) was similar in non-reinforced and graphene-reinforced samples, within the entire range of the examined frequencies. (C) 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers