EEONOMER® is our new conductive additive for plastics and
thermosets
Conductive compounds, representing one of the
fastest growing classes of specialty thermoplastics and thermosets, are
typically manufactured by the addition of conductive additives such as
carbon blacks, metal powder, metal and carbon fibers etc. to polymer
matrix. However, several disadvantages exist with this current
technology including processing difficulties with the required high loadings
and the inevitable high costs associated with these problems. New
intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs) e.g. polyaniline or
polypyrrole, also known as synthetic metals, represent another class
of conductive additive. They are however only suitable for processing
into lower melting plastics (up to 200°C) and are therefore very limited in
their use.
Eeonomer®, prepared via in-situ polymerization and
deposition of ICPs into a carbon black or other matrix, represent a superior
class of new conductive additive. Possessing greater thermal-oxidative
stability than ICPs (up to 300°C) allows for processing into the majority of
plastics and thermosets currently being processed in industry today without
degradation or loss of conductivity. The carbon black/ICP composite
results in a much reduced surface area and pore volume of the carbon
black.
Consequently melt processing of Eeonomer® into a
variety of plastics leads to conductive blends with improved electrical,
mechanical and melt flow properties and greatly reduced compounding
difficulties and easier end-product fabrication. For example, in
certain plastic systems (ABS, nylons, polyesters etc.) 1/2 of
Eeonomer® loading versus a typical carbon black is needed to
achieve the same conductivity level. Due to improved compatibility,
Eeonomer®/plastic compounds show reduced sloughing when compared
to carbon black loaded compounds. Also, Eeonomer® loaded
heterogeneous plastic alloys (TPO, etc.) exhibit at least a 10 fold increase
in conductivity compared to high structure carbon black loaded alloys at the
same loading level. Furthermore Eeonomer® added into silver
loaded thermoset systems leads to improved thermal and electrical
conductivity.
Eeonomer® by nature is a very diverse conductive
additive. The synthetic process is such that its physical properties
can be fine-tuned to meet the broad range of a customer’s requirements and
also the rigorous demands of compounding and final product
manufacturing. For example, tuning opportunities include the variation
of the type and amount of conductive polymer and also its acidity and
associated dopant ion. The carbon black type may also be varied.
It is very difficult to make carbon black based compounds with consistent
resistivity in the anti-static to static-dissipative range because the
required loadings lay on the vertical part of the percolation curve.
Specially designed Eeonomers® allow us to tune reproducibly the
resistivity of the product to desired levels.