Volume 140, Issue 5 e53424
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Properties of polyamide 6/multiwalled carbon nanotubes composites: The influence of processing methods

Xue Lei

Xue Lei

The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Contribution: Data curation (lead), Formal analysis (lead), ​Investigation (lead), Validation (lead), Visualization (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

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Mei Liang

Mei Liang

The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Contribution: Project administration (lead)

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Huawei Zou

Corresponding Author

Huawei Zou

The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Correspondence

Huawei Zou and Shengtai Zhou, The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Contribution: Resources (lead), Funding acquisition (lead)

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Shengtai Zhou

Corresponding Author

Shengtai Zhou

The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Correspondence

Huawei Zou and Shengtai Zhou, The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization (supporting), Funding acquisition (supporting), Writing - original draft (supporting), Writing - review & editing (supporting)

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First published: 22 November 2022
Citations: 2

Funding information: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 52103040; Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 2020M673217

Abstract

The objective of this work was to elucidate the influence of shear rates on the properties of polyamide 6/multiwalled carbon nanotube (PA6/CNT) composites which was realized by adopting different types of processing methods that feature different orders of magnitude in shear rates, such as compression molding (CM, ~0 s−1), conventional injection molding (CIM, ~102 s−1) and microinjection molding (μIM, ~105 s−1). Electrical conductivity (σ) results indicated that the prevailing high shearing conditions in injection molding was unfavorable for the formation of intact filler network, thereby resulting in a much lower σ than CM counterparts. Moreover, the σ of PA6/CNT microparts was higher than that of CIM macroparts when the filler content was less than 5 wt%, otherwise the σ of CIM macroparts prevailed over that of μIM counterparts. A better filler distribution was observed when PA6/CNT composites were processed under higher shearing conditions, as corroborated by SEM. In addition, CNTs were preferentially aligned along flow direction and a higher degree of CNT orientation was expected with increasing shear rates, as confirmed by Raman spectral analysis. The tensile strength of injection molded PA6/CNT samples increased with increasing filler concentrations, and the more preferential orientation and better distribution of CNT were considered to be the contributing factors. The comparative study of the properties of PA6/CNT composites that processed using different methods was important for their practical applications in industrial sectors.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Research data are not shared.

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