EFFECT OF INCORPORATING NANOPARTICLES IN THERMOPLASTIC FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES ON THE ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY

摘要

The increasing demand for eco-friendly, high efficient automobiles led to the introduction of new materials. Due to their specific properties such as high toughness, fatigue resistance, chemical resistance and an unlimited shelf life fiber-reinforced composites gain more and more importance within the automotive industry. Especially thermoplastic endless fiber-reinforced composites, so called organic sheets, offer great potential in structural and semi-structural applications. However, when it comes to exterior applications tremendous efforts have to be made to meet the industries requirements, e.g. on the appearance of components. The online varnishing of composite components together with the body in white is a promising way to achieve color matching parts in an economical and ecological process. As the varnishing process is based on an electrostatic deposition process, the intrinsic isolating polymer composites have to be modified with conductive filler to reach a minimum electrical conductivity of 10~(-4) S/m. Within the last years a vast number of polymers, both thermoplastic and thermoset, have been modified with carbon nanotubes. But even as the electrical conductivity of many polymers has been increased there are only single applications on the market which use the benefits of incorporated CNT. However, one of the main challenges when working with nano materials is to evenly distribute and disperse the particles within the matrix systems.