Morphology and electrical conductivity of injection-molded polypropylene/carbon black composites with addition of high-density polyethylene

This work attempts to clarify the influence of carbon black (CB) addition on the microstructure of injection-molded high-density polyethylene (HDPE)/polypropylene (PP) blends and effect of shear-induced polymer deformation on the conductive network structure. We observed that HDPE molecules are strongly interacted with carbon surfaces and CB particles are selectively located in HDPE domains. Morphology of the injection-molded specimen consists of three parts, namely, CB-HDPE complex domain, free HDPE domain and PP domain. The volume and microstructure of the free HDPE domain are significantly influenced by HDPE and CB concentration, CB structure, and PP viscosity. We also confirmed that the CB particles are capable of self-assembly to form random conductive networks even under high shear rate within very short time. The morphological changes were finally correlated to the variation of electrical conductivity.