Effects of solid-phase drawing on mechanical and electromagnetic shielding properties of CNTs/PP composites

Abstract

Using polypropylene (PP) as a matrix and carbon nanotube (CNTs) as a modified material to prepare CNTs/PP composites, the effects of solid-phase drawing and CNTs on properties of PP-based composites after solid-phase drawing were analyzed. Crystallization, mechanical and electromagnetic shielding properties of the composites were studied by wide angle X-ray diffraction, 2D wide angle X-ray diffraction, small angle X-ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing microscope, scanning electron microscope, universal test machine, and vector analyzer. The results show that the solid-phase drawing and CNTs increase the tensile strength of the composite and reduce its elongation at break; the addition of CNTs plays a clear heterogeneous nucleation, refines the grain and improve the crystallinity, and the crystal formation of the CNTs/PP composite before and after the solid-phase drawing does not change, but the α-crystal for PP is improved significantly. The crystallinity of the composites is slightly decreased with increasing solid-phase drawing rate. The solid-phase drawing treatment and CNTs can improve the electromagnetic shielding performance, but make the electromagnetic shielding performances reduce after high drawing rate treatment.

Keywords

• carbon nanotubes
• polypropylene
• solid-phase drawing
• mechanical property
• crystallization performance
• electromagnetic shielding