Enhancing performance: insights into the augmentation potential of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene/boron nitride composites

This work aims to investigate the morphological, mechanical and thermal characteristics of boron nitride (BN)-reinforced acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS) composites. ABS and ABS/BN composites with a maximum BN loading up to 8 wt% were developed using two-roll mill followed by compression molding. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images presented interlinking of BN flakes in the dimple texture of ABS. A modest decrease in tensile properties was observed for the composites. The tensile strength and impact strength for the ABS/BN8 specimen were lowered by 4.7 and 81.7 %, respectively. On the other hand, hardness increased by 3.39 % for ABS/BN8 composite. The interaction effect of BN in the ABS matrix on the thermal properties was assessed using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). An enhancement in the thermal-stability was observed for BN incorporated ABS. There is a modest shift in glass transition (T g) temperature to a higher value for the ABS/BN composites.