There is an urgent demand for producing biodegradable polymer based composites with good thermal and/ or electrical conductivity to mitigate the plastic pollution introduced by electronic waste.  Here, we have designed and engineered a mechanically strong, melt processable, biodegradable polymer based nanocomposite with excellent thermal and electrical conductivity using filler dispersion pronciple and the work of adhesion (W_a) as guides.  In the design, graphene nano-platelets (GNPs) were dispersed into a highly ductile biodegradable polymer - poly(butylene adipate-co-butylene terephthalate) (PBAT).  Blending with another biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) that has low affinity to GNPs, confined the dispersion of GNPs within PBAT matrix, thereby faciliating the formation of a percolated network.  As a result, high thermal conductivity (3.25 W/m.K) and electrical conductivity (338 S/m) were achieved for the nanocomposite at 40 wt% of GNPs loading, and the mechanical performance remained stroing even at such filler loading due to the strong interaction between GNPs and PBAT.  This study provides a new strategy for effectively producing high thermally and/ or electrically conductive polymer nanocomposites.

*Guo Y, Zuo X, Xue Y, Tang J, Gouzman M, Fang Y, Zhou Y, Wang L, Yu Y, Rafailovich M. Composites Part B 2020; 189: 107905