The Injected Foaming Study of Polypropylene/Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Composite with In Situ Fibrillation Reinforcement

Abstract

This paper explored the injection foaming process of in situ fibrillation reinforced polypropylene composites. Using polypropylene (PP) as the continuous phase, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as the dispersed phase, multi–wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the conductive filler, and PP grafted with maleic anhydride (PP–g–MA) as the compatibilizer, a MWCNTs/PP–g–MA masterbatch was prepared by using a solution blending method. Then, a lightweight, conductive PP/PTFE/MWCNTs composite foam was prepared by means of extruder granulation and supercritical nitrogen (ScN2) injection foaming. The composite foams were studied in terms of rheology, morphological, foaming behavior and mechanical properties. The results proved that the in situ fibrillation of PTFE can have a remarkable effect on melt strength and viscoelasticity, thus improving the foaming performance; we found that PP/3% PTFE showed excellent performance. Meanwhile, the addition of MWCNTs endows the material with conductive properties, and the conductivity reached was 2.73 × 10−5 S/m with the addition of 0.2 wt% MWCNTs. This study’s findings are expected to be applied in the lightweight, antistatic and high–performance automotive industry.