Thermally Conductive Polyethylene/Expanded Graphite Composites as Heat Transfer Surface: Mechanical, Thermo-Physical and Surface Behavior

Polymers

卷:12

Mustapha Karkri¹  Asma Abdulgader²  Anton Popelka²  Patrik Sobolčiak²  Igor Krupa²  Miroslav Mrlik³  Hans-Jörg Bart⁴  Hendrik Kiepfer⁴  Ahmed A. Abdala⁵  Abdelnasser A. Aboukhlewa⁶ 

[1] CERTES, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, 94000 Paris, France;

[2] Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar;

[3] Centre of Polymer Systems, University Institute, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Trida T. Bati 5678, 76001 Zlin, Czech Republic;

[4] Chair of Separation Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3049 TU Kaiserslautern, 67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany;

[5] Chemical Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, P.O. Box 23874 Doha, Qatar;

[6] Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, HBKU, P.O. Box 5825 Doha, Qatar;

关键词: multi-effect distillation;    high density polyethylene;    expanded graphite;    polymeric composites;    plasma treatment;    scaling;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym12122863

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Composites of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and expanded graphite (EG) are prepared for heat exchangers in multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination. At 50 wt.% EG loading, the thermal conductivity of HDPE was increased by 372%. Moreover, the surface wettability of the HDPE/EG composite was enhanced by corona and RF plasma treatment as demonstrated by the increase in surface free energy from 28.5 mJ/m² for untreated HDPE/EG to 55.5 and 54.5 mJ/m² for HDPE/EG treated by corona and RF plasma, respectively. This enhanced surface wettability was retained over a long time with only a 9% and 18% decrease in RF and corona plasma-treated samples’ surface energy after two months. The viscoelastic moduli and the complex viscosity profiles indicated that EG content dictates the optimum processing technique. At loading below 30 wt.%, the extrusion process is preferred, while above 30 wt.% loading, injection molding is preferred. The plasma treatment also improved the HDPE/EG composite overall heat transfer coefficient with an overall heat transfer coefficient of the composite reaching about 98% that of stainless steel. Moreover, the plasma-treated composite exhibited superior resistance to crystallization fouling in both CaSO₄ solution and artificial seawater compared to untreated composites and stainless-steel surfaces.

【 授权许可】

Unknown