Abstract
The demand on conductive polymer has been increasing due to its diverse applications such as for electromagnetic shielding, sensors and antistatic material. The aim of this study was to determine the electrical and physical properties of peroxide-vulcanised poly(butadiene-co-acrylonitrile) [NBR] loaded with either polyaniline-dodecylbenzenesulfonate [PAni.DBSA] or carbon black. Different compositions of NBR wt%:filler wt% blends (97.5 : 2.5, 95 : 5, 92.5 : 7.5, 90 : 10, 80 : 20, 70 : 30, 60 : 40, 50 : 50) were prepared using a two roll-mill and vulcanised using peroxide system. Tensile tests, hardness, electrical conductivity, dispersion of fillers and morphological study (via transmission electron microscope) were conducted to evaluate the performance of the fillers. The results showed that the hardness, tensile strength and electrical conductivity increased with increasing concentration of fillers. Carbon black-filled blends exhibited better but comparable tensile strength and hardness compared to PAni.DBSA-filled blends. Nonetheless, PAni.DBSA demonstrated outstanding electrical conductivity with low percolation threshold (2.5 wt%) up to 0.1 S.cm-1 compared to carbon black(1 x 10-4 S.cm-1). The dispersion of fillers exceeded 90 % which indicates homogenised blends. As observed from the morphological study, conductive network paths built up by those phase separated regions of PAni.DBSA were increased with the PAni.DBSA content. Based on these results, peroxide-vulcanised NBR-PAni.DBSA blends (10.0 - 50.0 wt% of PAni.DBSA contents) could emerge as a potential raw material for all above mentioned applications.
