GRAPHITE NANOPLATELETS DISPERSION BY MELT REACTIVE EXTRUSION FOR THE PREPARATION OF THERMALLY CONDUCTIVE POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES

Thermally conductive polymer nanocomposites are of great interest in substituting metal components in all those applications where corrosion resistance, lightweight and ease of processability are required. Graphene NanoPlatelets (GNP) are promising nanofillers thanks to their geometry, which allows to obtain an higher contact area between particles in composites [1,2,3]. However, it is often critical to obtain a good dispersion degree of GNP. In this work, different types of GNPs have been melt mixed with cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT), being low viscosity oligomers which polymerize during melt mixing in the presence of an appropriate catalyst. Thermal conductivity of the polymer nanocomposite is measured and correlated to dispersion obtained and GNP properties