Mechanical and Physical Properties of Polypropylene/Carbon Composites Modified by Microwave Irradiation

It is known that many carbon compounds have big dielectric losses which mean that carbon materials are heated efficiently by microwave irradiation.Carbon materials can be used as microwave absorbers in polymeric materials that are transparent to microwave irradiation.In this paper carbon reinforced polypropylene composites were exposed to microwave irradiation and then their dynamic mechanical thermal properties,electron magnetic shielding,and surface morphology through scanning electron microscopic(SEM)were investigated.The test results showed that the mechanical and physical properties of the composites improved following microwave exposure.The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis(DMTA)results showed that the storage and loss modulus were improved following microwave treatment.This is in contrast to previous research studies which stated that microwaves have no influence on loss modulus of these composites.It is postulated that microwave irradiation heats PP/conductive carbon black interface which is likely to melt neighboring matrix thus improving interfacial adhesion and structural defects.