Properties and thermo-switch behaviour of LDPE mixed with carbon black, zinc metal and paraffin wax

This paper reports on the presence of wax and radiation-induced crosslinking on the morphology, thermal and mechanical properties, as well as electrical conductivity and thermo-switch properties of LDPE containing different amounts of carbon black (CB) or carbon black plus zinc metal as filler. Although the filler was generally well dispersed in the polymer or polymer/wax blend, there were clear indications of the formation of conductive pathways. Different combinations of polymer, wax, CB and zinc filler and radiation induced crosslinking gave rise to different extents of crystallinity and/or chain immobilization, which had an influence on the mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties, and on the electrical conductivity and thermo-switch behaviour. Most importantly, the presence of wax, and CB and CB/Zn fillers, gave rise to increased electrical conductivity. The thermal expansion in the composites did not seem to play a significant role in obtaining larger values of the positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTC). We found that the presence of a small amount of paraffin wax significantly increased the PTC coefficients of the LDPE based conductive composites, and that γ-radiation induced crosslinking provided the thermo-mechanical stability of the amorphous regions in LDPE needed to obtain a high PTC intensity, which would provide a cheap material with good thermo-switch functionality, which is something not observed before.