Effect of carbon black and nanoclay on mechanical and thermal properties of ABS-PANI/ABS-PPy blends

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)-polyaniline (PANI) and ABS-polypyrrole (PPy) blends exhibit poor mechanical and thermal properties due to their weak interfacial adhesion and inhomogeneous mixing. The properties have been improved by addition of carbon black (CB) and nanoclay (NC). Composites are prepared by mixing CB and NC with ABS-PANI and ABS-PPY blends. The morphology and crystalline characteristics are studied using field emission scanning electron spectroscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction, respectively. In addition, all the composites have been analyzed for their mechanical and thermal performance. The tensile strength of ABS-PANI has been increased by 7.18% and 65.83% with addition of CB and a combination of CB-NC, respectively. FESEM images are found supportive with these trends and show homogeneous dispersion of CB in the polymer matrix, assisted by NC. Dynamic mechanical analysis results also show slight improvement of glass transition temperature (T-g) with addition of fillers. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42577.