Electrical and mechanical properties of ABS/EPDM composites filled with carbon black

Abstract A new way has been devised to modify acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) using maleic anhydride (MAH) functionalized ABS and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) as compatibilizer and flexibilizer. The SEM micrographs and electrical analysis reveal that EPDM-g-MAH shows poor compatibility with ABS matrix, but the polymer blends become much more miscible after being compounded with ABS-g-MAH. Carbon black (CB) selectively dispersed in ABS phase increases the concentration of CB in ABS domain, which dramatically increases electrical conductivity. Moreover, with raw ABS being massively added into the blends, the mechanical properties are significantly improved while conductivity is slightly decreased.