USING ULTRASONIC TECHNOLOGY TO PREPARE WELL-DISPERSED POLYCARBONATE/CARBON NANOTUBES COMPOSITES AT HIGH FLOW RATE

摘要

Polycarbonate (PC)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composites were prepared using ultrasonic twin screw extruder at two different flow rates. During the extrusion of PC/CNTs composites, both the shearing and ultrasonic treatment helped dispersing CNTs into the polymer matrix. At low flow rate and longer residence time, CNTs can be well dispersed, but this may induce more degradation of polymer and low production throughput, which is not good for industrial production. At high flow rate, the dispersion of CNTs is worse than that in low flow rate and thus worse properties. Regarding to this problem, ultrasonic technology stands out and shows superior capability in improving the dispersion of CNTs and increase the throughput at the same time, which is especially beneficial for industrial production of polymer/nanofiller composites. The electrical, morphological, rheological and mechanical properties of the untreated and ultrasonically treated samples were investigated. The results supported the conclusion that ultrasonic technology is exceptionally efficient on improving the dispersion of CNTs and preparing well- dispersed polymer composites at high flow rate.