Properties of polyamide 6-graphene-composites produced and processed on industrial scale

The use of graphene as a filler in thermoplastics has already been investigated extensively. The mechanical properties as well as electrical and thermal conductivity of thermoplastics can be improved due to graphene. However, these studies were carried out in experimental scale, which allows a good dispersion of graphene because of a long residence time during melt mixing and because of the use of almost ideal graphene, which has a high specific surface and low number of layers. In this study the scientific findings are transferred into industrial practice. For that purpose, a co-rotating intermeshing twin screw extruder with limited residence time and limited shear energy input is used to produce graphene based polyamide 6 composites and short carbon fibre reinforced graphene based polyamide 6 composites. These composites are further processed by injection molding to produce specimens in order to determine the mechanical properties. In addition to the scale-up to industrial production, two types of graph...