Conductive Plastics from Al Platelets in a PBT-PET Polyester Blend Having Co-Continuous Morphology

oleh: Abdullah Alhamidi, Arfat Anis, Saeed M. Al-Zahrani, Zahir Bashir, Maher M. Alrashed

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-03-01

Deskripsi

Conductive plastics are made by placing conductive fillers in polymer matrices. It is known that a conductive filler in a binary polymer blend with a co-continuous morphology is more effective than in a single polymer, because it aids the formation of a ‘segregated conductive network’. We embedded a relatively low-cost conductive filler, aluminium nano platelets, in a 60/40 PBT/PET polymer blend. While 25 vol.% of the Al nanoplatelets when placed in a single polymer (PET) gave a material with the resistivity of an insulator (10<sup>14</sup> Ωcm), the same Al nano platelets in the 60/40 PBT/PET blend reduced the resistivity to 7.2 × 10<sup>7</sup> Ωcm, which is in the category of an electrostatic charge dissipation material. While PET tends to give amorphous articles, the 60/40 PBT/PET blends crystallised in the time scale of the injection moulding and hence the conductive articles had dimensional stability above the T<sub>g</sub> of PET.