Synergistic effects of conductive carbon nanofillers based on the ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene with uniform and segregated structures

ABSTRACT To discuss the synergistic effects of mixed conductive filler on nanocomposites, different structural carbon nanofiller/ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) hybrid nanocomposites with uniform and segregated structure were prepared by using ethanol‐assisted dispersion, hydrazine reduction, and hot‐pressing methods. Scanning electron microscopy and polarized optical microscopy images of the nanocomposites fracture showed that the complete conductive channels could be formed in segregated nanocomposites prepared by powder mixing method. By contrast, the discontinuous electric path could be observed in the homogeneous nanocomposites prepared by the solution method. The test of conductivity performance demonstrated that the percolation threshold of carbon black (CB)/UHMWPE and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)‐CB/UHMWPE nanocomposites with segregated structure were 0.42 and 0.18 vol %, which were lower than those of the nanocomposites with uniform structure (4.91 and 2.62%). The electrical conductivity of MWCNTs‐CB/UHMWPE nanocomposites with segregated structure reached to 3.0 × 10 −2 S m −1 with the filler content of 1.5 vol %. In addition, the results of differential scanning calorimetry indicated that the crystallinity of UHMWPE decreased slightly with the addition of mixed filler. All of the study showed that the conductivity of MWCNTs‐CB/UHMWPE nanocomposites with segregated structure has better electrical conductivity than the uniform. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47317.