Carbon-based polymer nanocomposites with enhanced conductive properties

Nowadays the development of new technologies requires materials with unconventional combination of properties. Polymers are classified as electrical and thermal insulating materials, which limits their use for several important technological applications. However, conductive polymers could be used in order to overcame drawbacks in the use of metals, metal alloys and ceramic materials as conductive media. Thermal conductive polymers could be profitably exploited in heat management applications (e.g. heat sink, heat exchangers), while electrical conductive polymers could be used in different fields depending on their electrical conductive values. To enhance the conductive properties of polymers, several approaches has been reported in literature. However, the most established way to achieve this goal consists in the development of suitable composite materials by means of the incorporation of conductive fillers within the polymeric matrix. The choice of the conductive filler is a crucial point in the development of the final material. Due to their extremely high thermal and electrical conductivity, coupled with the low density, the nano-metric scale and the outstanding mechanical properties, carbon-based nanomaterials are the most promising fillers suitable for processing conductive polymers. Since graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) are considered young materials with potentials not yet fully exploited, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are nowadays the most established materials used as conductive filler. In this thesis work thermally and electrically conductive polymer composites, filled with carbon-based nanomaterials were investigated. In the first part of the experimental work, particular attention was devoted to the development of GNPs-based thermally conductive polymers. By properly selecting several polymeric matrices and comparing several available processing techniques it was possible to outline a guideline in the use of GNPs as thermally conductive fillers. A strong filler characterization reveals that, in spite to the amount of defects and to the filler purity, the main GNPs properties able to enhance the thermal conductivity of polymers is the lateral dimension. With the aim of developing metal-free circuits integrated in nanocomposite, a laser printing process was successfully exploited in order to obtain electrical conductive paths on the surface of a polymeric materials containing MWCNTs. Starting from the literature knowhow and new experimental results, a complete comprehension of the parameters that affect the laser printing process was achieved by applying a statistical approach. By analysing the experimental outcomes with a statistical approach, it was possible to focus the attention on the main laser parameters that govern the process, thus obtaining multifunctional and multidirectional conductive materials with surface electrical resistance per unit length (inside the tracks) lower than 1 kΩ/cm at 0.5 wt.% of MWCNTs loading content. Finally, by combining outcomes obtained as described above, hybrid carbon-based nanocomposites were developed, with the purpose of enhancing contemporaneously thermal and electrical conductivity. Hybrid materials, obtained starting from a commercial masterbatch containing MWCNTs, demonstrated the possibility to partially replace the high amounts of carbon nanotubes with low cost carbon based materials without worsening the good conductive properties. Not only conductive properties were investigated, but all the studied materials were also characterized by means of mechanical and thermal stability tests, thus demonstrating the possibility of adopting carbon-based polymer nanocomposites as multifunctional materials.