Electrical, elastic properties and defect structures of isotactic polypropylene composites doped with nanographite and graphene nanoparticles

TL;DR

This study investigates how doping isotactic polypropylene with nanographite and graphene nanoparticles affects its structure, elastic, and electrical properties, using experimental analysis and theoretical modeling to understand the role of nanofiller morphology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis combining experimental techniques and Cosserat elasticity modeling to understand nanofiller effects in polypropylene nanocomposites.

Findings

Nanographite and graphene nanoparticles alter mechanical and electrical properties of iPP.

Fractal aggregation of nanofillers influences composite behavior.

Cosserat elasticity effectively models defect-related nanofiller effects.

Abstract

Conducting polymers have wide technological applications in sensors, actuators, electric and optical devices, solar cells etc. To improve their operational performance, mechanical, thermal, electrical and optical properties, such polymers are doped with carbon allotrope nanofillers. Functionality of the novel nanocomposite polymers may be stipulated by size characteristics of nanoparticles and the polymer, different physical effects like charge transfer in such objects etc. We characterize and analyze structure, elastic, electric properties and of novel polymer nanocomposites, isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with high crystallinity, doped with graphene nanoplates (GNP) and nanographite particles at different concentrations and sizes about 100 nm, basing on the results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), dielectric spectroscopy, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and theoretical modeling. Carbon NPs aggregated in fractal objects in the bulk of iPP change its mechanical plastic, elastic and electric properties comparing with pristine polymer. We study modification of nanofiller morphology with the concept of Cosserat elasticity which involves description of the behavior of linear topological defects caused aggregation of nanographite and GNPs. We supply our experimental data with numerical simulations on the lattice in frames of the model of Cosserat elasticity to estimate some mechanical characteristics of the whole composite iPP.