Rheological and electrical analysis in carbon nanofibre reinforced polypropylene composites

摘要

Two different types of carbon nanofibers (CNF) were incorporated in the same polypropylene(PP) matrix by twin-screw extrusion. The electrical characterization of both CNFs / PPcomposites as a function of volume fraction show different electrical performance:conducting and non-conducting. The objective of this work is to study the rheologicalbehaviour of both composites with the aim of relating it to the electrical behaviour. Theresults indicate that the rheological behaviours are different, suggesting that rheologydifferentiates the microstructural variations responsible for the electrical performance.Furthermore, the main rheological parameters were correlated to the electrical conductivity.The results show that G´/ G´´ and G´ are the most sensitive parameters when compared to theonset of electrical percolation. Finally, in spite of the intrinsic measuring differences betweenelectrical and rheological analysis, the two calculated thresholds are very similar: ~ 0.5 forthe rheological and ~ 0.4 for the electrical.