Japan`s Kanazawa University of Technology has collaborated with Sanei Industrial Co., Ltd., which is engaged in industrial waste treatment and recycling, to develop a new type of thermoplastic carbon fiber composite material (CFRTP) with higher strength than conventional carbon fiber composite materials and excellent antistatic properties. The research team has developed a "compatibilizer", which not only suppresses the problem of the reduction of the conductivity of carbon fiber composite materials caused by traditional compatibilizers, but even if the fiber length of carbon fiber is short, it can improve the injection molding and maintain the rigidity. Formability such as extrusion molding.
New material properties
The thermoplastic carbon fiber composite material developed this time is expected to be used in automotive and aircraft related components and building materials that require mechanical properties such as high specific strength and high specific elastic modulus. In addition, precision components such as semiconductors that require high levels of antistatic performance The use value of the molding field is also very high, and it is expected that there will be great demand in the future.
Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite material is a composite material with thermoplastic resin as the matrix and carbon fiber as the reinforcement. Mixing carbon fiber and resin can form a lightweight and strong material. In recent years, the use of this carbon fiber composite material in the aircraft and automobile fields that require energy saving has been expanding. However, the compatibility of carbon fiber and resin is usually poor, so it is often impossible to mix them sufficiently, and there is a problem in terms of strength. In addition, resins have electrical insulation properties, and in the field of precision components such as semiconductors and electronic components, composite materials with excellent conductivity that do not carry static electricity are particularly required.
As a "compatibilizer" to promote the mixing of carbon fiber and resin, maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) has been used before, but the composite material using MAPP has carbon dots bonded to the resin through dots instead of surfaces. Therefore, there is a problem that the interfacial adhesion performance is insufficient (weak adhesion) and the conductive performance cannot be sufficiently obtained. In addition, in order to improve the interfacial adhesion of the composite material, a large amount of MAPP must be added, which brings about the problem that the conductivity of the composite material will be reduced.
The compatibilizer used in iPP-PAA (isotactic polypropylene polyacrylic acid copolymer) jointly developed by Kanazawa University of Technology and Sanyo Sungye ’s research team is to combine the carbon fiber and the resin through the surface, and a small amount of use can improve the interface adhesion Therefore, composite materials with excellent mechanical properties (high specific strength and high specific elastic modulus) and excellent electrical conductivity (antistatic) can be realized.
In addition, IPP-PAA has the same crystallinity as the base material PP, and the melting point is 20 ° C higher than MAPP. The molecular weight and functional groups of the reactive polar polymers at both ends can be controlled.
With this invention, even short fibers with a carbon fiber length of 0.1 to 50 mm can ensure rigidity, so it can also improve the moldability of thermoplastic carbon fiber composites such as injection molding and extrusion molding, and is expected to expand applications in a wide range of fields.