Preparation and characterization of permanently anti-static packaging composites composed of high impact polystyrene and ion-conductive polyamide elastomer

Antistatic composites composed of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and NaSCN doped poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBA) solid-polymer-electrolyte (SPE) were successfully prepared in a Haake torque rheometer. The influence of PEBA component on the surface resistivity of PEBA-based SPE was extensively studied by surface resistivity test. The dependence of the surface resistivity of HIPS/SPE composites on both temperature and relative humidity (RH) was also investigated. Thermal decomposition behaviors, mechanical properties, and surface morphology of the HIPS/SPE composites were evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), tensile test, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The results show that the surface resistivity of the HIPS/SPE composites can be effectively reduced to 10(9) Omega cm(-2) orders of magnitude when the SPE content reaches 20 phr. TGA result reveals that the antistatic HIPS/SPE (70/30 by wt.) composite can be fabricated by traditional thermoplastic processing method without any decomposition once the processing temperature is lower than 320 degrees C. SEM results show that the antistatic ability of HIPS/SPE composites is originated from the formation of continuous PEBA-based ion-conductive channels or networks. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.