Umar, M.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna Nigeria
Ofem, M. I.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cross River University of Technology Calabar, Nigeria
Anwar, A. S.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna Nigeria
Ubi, P. A.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Calabar, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
The effect of particulate carbon fillers, graphite (G) and Graphite
nanoplatelet to the polymerisation reaction of epsilon caprolactam (EC) with a
catalyst system consisting of N-acetyl caprolactam (NAC) and caprolactam
magnesium bromide (CMB) was investigated. Two processing regimes were used each
with 5 carbon cumulative loading levels. These are the 40/10 and 20/20
processing regimes where the first number reflect the percentage of sonication
amplitude used and the next reflects the sonication time. The effects on
polymerisation reaction rates and the properties of the composites were found
to differ. For the G 40/10 system the rates of reaction for the composites are
significantly reduced comparative to unfilled PA6. The rates of reaction fell
from 0.3 to 0.15°C/s for the composites. For the
G 20/20 system the rates of reaction fell within the range 0.3 ±0.07°C/s with
error bars overlapping pure PA6. This suggests that relative to unfilled PA6 the
dispersive mixing of G within the systems with the 20/20 dispersion condition
had no significant effect on the rates of reaction.
Keywords: Graphite, nano-platelets, in situ polymerisation, melt extrusion, air, nitrogen, processing strain, rates of reaction, sonification
https://doi.org/10.33922/j.ujet_v6i1_3
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Published
Monday, June 01, 2020
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 1, June 2020
Article Section
GENERAL
The contents of the articles are the sole opinion of the author(s) and not of UJET.
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