Semiconductive composites from ethylene 1-octene copolymer and polyaniline coated nylon 6: Studies on mechanical, thermal, processability, electrical, and EMI shielding properties

in-situ coating of polyaniline (PAni) on nylon 6 filaments was carried out by oxidative emulsion polymerization of aniline in presence of nylon 6 filaments. The semiconducting composites were prepared by mixing polyaniline coated Nylon 6 (PN6) with a polyolefinic thermoplastic elastomer namely ethylene 1-octene copolymer (EN). The effect of composition on different mechanical, dynamic mechanical, thermal, electrical properties, morphology, processability, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding efficiency (SE) of these composites were investigated. The results revealed that the increased incorporation of PN6 in EN caused increase in modulus, hardness, glass transition temperature (T-g), apparent shear viscosity, electrical properties, EMI SE but caused decrease in the tensile strength, elongation at rupture, damping character, and die-swell during injection molding. There are linear increase in AC conductivity and exponential decay in relative dielectric constant with the increase in applied pressure on composites. When a composite is subjected to electron beam (EB) radiation some crosslinks are formed. Mechanical properties of the composite after radiation treatment found to improve. Flow behavior shows the material is pseudo-plastic in nature.