Thermal and Optical Properties of Polystyrene Nanocomposites Reinforced with Soot

Abstract

Heat stabilizer plays a major rule in the manufacturing of plastic products to enhance thermal properties. Carbon nanostructures (include soot) is one of the famous heat stabilizers. In the present study, different ratios of soot were blended to polystyrene (PS) using magnetic-heater stirrer and the ultrasound machine. The casting method was used to prepare the thin films of the pure and blended polystyrene. The techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and UV-Visible spectrophotometer were successfully used to characterize as-prepared composites. TGA results show that the thermal stability of PS is increased significantly after the addition of soot to polystyrene. The initial decomposition temperature (5% weight loss) of PS (229°C) is increased to 395°C when loading 5% (wt/wt) of soot. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) curves of composites represented higher temperature peak 452.23°C, and less degradation rate than virgin polystyrene. In addition, the optical results of polystyrene composite showed decreasing in the energy gap, values of refractive index and the real part of dielectric constant when the soot was added to polystyrene.