Solid-State Thermoplastic Foaming Assisted By Microwave:The effect of CNT loading

For the first time, we used microwave heating as new source of energy in thermoplastics foaming and PS/CNT nanocomposites as a model system. At this method, CNT react to microwave and transduce the radiation energy to the heat. As the consequence, foaming occurs near the hot particles, where the polymer is sufficiently compliant, while remaining strong elsewhere. It means less collapsing and reaching to lighter foam. It’s proved the cell growth and foam structure depend on total received energy. This parameter can be controlled by both time and concentration of heating source. As this method used tiny dispersed heating source, so it is a faster method and more uniform and lighter foam are achieved