Novel wet-free interfacial affinity modulation of non-polar polymers for imparting efficient heat transfer capability to incompatible polypropylene/graphite nanoplatelet composite

Minsung Kim, Jiwan You, Jong Hyuk Park, Joona Bang, Sang-Soo Lee

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In preparing a non-polar polymer composite employing functional fillers, the chemical inertness of non-polar polymer does not easily allow efficient interfacial affinity change. Here, a wet-free interfacial affinity modulation to incompatible polypropylene (PP)/graphite nanoplatelet (GNP) composite was performed with a nitrogen plasma-assisted mechanochemical (PM) treatment. It was surprising that the PP/GNP composite subjected to the PM treatment demonstrated the formation of chemical bonds between PP and GNP and the dramatic improvement of GNP dispersion in PP, resulting in a novel PP composite deploying efficient heat transfer along with mechanical performance comparable to that of neat PP. Due to the interfacial affinity control, the elongation at break of the PM-treated PP/GNP composite with 5 wt% of GNP was improved ten-folds compared to the untreated PP/GNP composite. The thermal conductivity of the PM-treated PP/GNP composite employing 20 wt% of GNP reached ca. 21 W/mK, whereas the untreated PP/GNP composite containing comparable amount of GNP exhibited 7 W/mK. Based on the findings, it can be noted that a solvent-free plasma-assisted mechanochemical treatment could be meaningful in developing a novel composite capable of efficient mechanical load transfer and heat transfer with non-polar polymers known to be poor at chemical reaction.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)346-353
    Number of pages8
    JournalJournal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
    Volume107
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2022 Mar 25

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) as part of the Culture Technology (CT) Research & Development Program (2R2019020040). M. Kim, J. H. Park and S.-S. Lee also acknowledge the financial support from the 2021 internal project of KIST.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry

    Keywords

    • Graphite nanoplatelet
    • Heat transfer composite
    • Interfacial affinity modulation
    • Non-polar polymer
    • Plasma-assisted mechanochemistry

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Chemical Engineering

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Novel wet-free interfacial affinity modulation of non-polar polymers for imparting efficient heat transfer capability to incompatible polypropylene/graphite nanoplatelet composite'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this