Improving electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of high density polyethylene through incorporation of paraffin wax coated exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets and multi-wall carbon nano-tubes

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) based nanocomposites are reinforced by exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets, GNP, and multi-wall carbon nano-tubes, MWCNT, through melt extrusion and injection molding in this study. Low molecular weight paraffin wax was selected as a coating on the surface of GNP and MWCNT to improve their dispersion in HDPE. Wax coated GNP and MWCNT were fabricated by mixing wax with GNP and MWCNT in hot xylene and followed with the solvent evaporation and vacuum drying. It was found that wax coated GNP and MWCNT are much more efficient than the uncoated ones in improving the electrical conductivity and the flexural properties of HDPE nanocomposites. Morphology characterization verified that the dispersion of GNP and MWCNT in the polymer matrix was significantly enhanced by this wax coating method which was responsible for the better electrical and mechanical properties in the resulting nanocomposites.