Synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride and industrial applications as tensile strength reinforcement agent in red Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS)

Abstract

Carbon materials are considered as one the hardest materials in the nature and are potential candidates as reinforcement agents. Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g-C₃N₄) nano-rods have been synthesized by using melamine and are examined by XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM and FTIR for checking their structures, elemental analysis and phase purity. The synthesized g-C₃N₄ nano-rods are used in various compositions (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) as reinforcement agents in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) which is extensively used in industrial applications. The results revealed that the tensile strength increases with the increase of g-C₃N₄ nano-rods in the ABS till some specific ratio (4%) but decreases with further increment of g-C₃N₄ nano-rods due to the agglomeration effect. Significantly, this enhancement in the tensile strength is better than other reinforcement agents and are crucial for industrial applications.

Introduction

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is an engineering thermoplastics resin widely used in industrial sectors, such as construction, machines, electronic and automotive due to its good mechanical and processing properties [1]. Mechanical properties of ABS, its blends, and composites have been intensively studied [2,3]. These ABS materials have been studied extensively for improving their strength with various agents such as hollow glass bead filled, graphene, nano silica, wood plastic and poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) [4,5]. D. W. JIN et al. [6] studied the effect of blend composition of PMMA on mechanical properties of ABS. Reza Bagherian Azhiri et al. [7] studied the nano silica particle utilization as reinforcement agent to form composite-like structure in the friction stir processed region and improve the joint strength. Rakesh K. Gupta et al. [8] studied the use of wood plastic in ABS as the matrix complex. Turcsanyi et al. [9] explained the relationship between the tensile yield stress and the interfacial adhesion between the matrix and the fillers, and proposed a general expression. Attia et al. [10] prepared functional graphene decorated with maleate diphosphate and TiO₂ nanoparticles for flame retardant ABS nano composite was decreased by 29.7%, while the tensile strength, were increased by 45.1%, 40.5% and 42.3%. Pour et al. [11] reported polycarbonate (PC)/ABS nano composites with varying concentrations (0–5 wt %) of multilayer graphene and found that the inclusion of 3 wt% g-C₃N₄ enabled with the PC/ABS blend composites are more stronger [12,13]. Recently, Liang and Li [14] investigated the effects of the filler content and surface treatment on the tensile properties of glass bead-filled ABS composites. They found that the tensile strength of the composite filled with the pretreated fillers was slightly greater than that of the composite filled with the raw fillers, while the tensile fracture toughness of the latter was better than that of the former [[15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21]]. Among these nano scale fillers, graphene has gained much attention from both academic and industrial communities due to its chemical, physical and thermal properties [22,23]. The addition of a small filling level of graphene usually leads to significant improvements in both flame retardancy and mechanical properties due to its barrier and reinforcement effects [24]. Ji-Zhao Liang et al. [25] studied the hollow glass beads surface of the particles which were pretreated with a silane coupling agent. The improvement of the tensile and flexural properties of the composite may be attributed to the smooth spherical surface. So keeping in view the literature it has been observed that the strength and other properties of the ABS could be enhanced. Graphitic carbon nitride is one of the hardest material and are a group of well-built polymeric materials consisting for the approximately every one part of carbon and nitrogen [26,27]. Fabrication of Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) can be synthesized easily in different methods and is being used in polymer material, energy storage devices and industrial applications.

Here in this research work, we have prepared g- C₃N₄ nano-rods by hydrothermal method and are used in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) with different compositions (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) for the enhancement of tensile strength of ABS for industrial applications. The performance of synthesized nano-rods has been studied as a reinforcement agent for polymer material (ABS) by using tensile properties and environment effect. A noteworthy improvement in tensile strength has been observed in the ABS plastic with the compositions of g-C₃N₄. It has been observed that the tensile strength of the ABS increases with the increase of the g-C₃N₄ nano-rods till 4% and decreases with further increase of g-C₃N₄ nano-rods which is due to the agglomerations and cracking effect. So 4% composite is the best for tensile strength and crucial for industrial applications. Furthermore, environmental effect has also been studied which showed insignificant change during the three months. So this research will significantly attract the researchers in reinforcement of polymer materials for industrial applications.