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    Electrical and thermal conductivity of polypropylene filled with combinations of carbon fillers
    (Melville, NY : AIP, 2016) Krause, Beate; Pötschke, Petra
    The thermal and electrical conductivity of polymer composites filled with a low content up to 7.5 vol% of different carbon fillers (carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, graphite nanoplates) were investigated. It was found that the combination of two or three carbon fillers leads to an increase of thermal conductivity up to 193% which is higher than the sum of the effects of both fillers.
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    Influence of a supplemental filler in twin-screw extruded PP/CNT composites using masterbatch dilution
    (Melville, NY : AIP, 2019) Müller, Michael Thomas; Krause, Beate; Kretzschmar, Bernd; Pötschke, Petra
    In this study commercially available multiwalled carbon nanotubes (2-8 wt.%) were incorporated in polypropylene (PP) by direct powder feeding or by a masterbatch dilution procedure using a twin-screw extruder. The influence of a supplemental, electrical non-conductive talc or electrically conductive carbon black (CB), filler on the resulting composite properties was investigated. In comparison to the direct carbon nanotube (CNT) incorporation the masterbatch dilution step resulted in improved CNT macro dispersion. The use of the supplemental fillers CB or talc does not show a significant influence on the CNT dispersion state. When compared to direct CNT incorporation, the second compounding process involved in masterbatch dilution leads to higher electrical resistivity of injection molded samples. On the other hand, the supplemental fillers talc or CB decreased the electrical resistivity values. With the addition of talc or CB an increase of the Young’s modulus due to the reinforcing effect of the second filler was achieved. However, no synergistic effect between the used supplemental fillers and the CNT on the mechanical properties was obtained.
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    Improvement of electrical resistivity of highly filled graphite/pp composite based bipolar plates for fuel cells by addition of carbon black
    (Melville, NY : AIP, 2019) Krause, Beate; Pötschke, Petra; Hickmann, Thorsten
    Novel material solutions for polymer based bipolar plates in fuel cells require adapted ways to develop suitable material compositions. The common pathway to develop materials with at the same time high electrical as well as thermal conductivity is the use of conductive graphite as filler with contents up to 80-85 wt.%. However, there is a need to develop recipes with maximized conductive behavior at lowest possible content of conductive filler to enhance the mechanical properties and allow good processability. In this study, composites based on polypropylene (PP) and different filler systems were melt-mixed using a lab scale co-rotating twin-screw extruder and compression molded to bipolar type plates. As fillers synthetic (G) or expanded (EG) graphites were incorporated. At the overall filler content of 60 wt.% or 80 wt% part of the graphite was replaced by highly conductive carbon black (CB, 2.5 wt.%, 5.0 wt.%). It was found that the addition of CB significantly reduced the electrical volume as well as the surface resistivity up to values of 0.12 Ωcm or 4 mΩ/square, respectively. For the values of thermal conductivity the kind and particle size of the selected graphite was important. If expanded graphite was partially replaced by CB, the thermal conductivity of PP/EG+CB composites decreased significantly. Otherwise, the combination of synthetic graphite and CB changed the thermal conductivity of PP composites only marginal at the same overall filler content. For both graphite types the filler with larger particle size resulted in higher thermal conductivity.