Mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of highly filled bamboo charcoal/ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene composites

Highly filled bamboo charcoal (BC)/ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composites were prepared using extrusion and hot‐compression molding methods. The addition of BC remarkably improved the tensile properties of UHMWPE composites. When the BC content reached 70 wt%, the tensile strength and Young's modulus rose from 28.0 and 326.6 MPa for the neat UHMWPE to 128.9 and 2,027.7 MPa, increasing by 360 and 520%, respectively. The incorporation of BC also significantly improved the creep resistance, especially at high temperature. The creep strains of the composites with 60, 70 and 80 wt% were reduced by 70.1, 78.3, and 85.2% compared to the neat UHMWPE at 80°C, respectively. To understand the mechanism, the Burger's model was employed to illustrate the influence of BC on the creep performance of the polymer composites. The addition of BC also increased the electrical conductivity of the composites: the composite with 80 wt% BC had a conductivity of 0.53 S/cm. Moreover, the thermal stability of BC/UHMWPE composites improved apparently with the increased charcoal loading. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:E1858–E1866, 2018. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers