Particle reinforcement is a common approach to improve mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE). The improvement of strength is commonly accompanied by an evident increase of Young's modulus, which is against the usage of TPEE as the elastomer material, however. The high-strength TPEE composites with low modulus are preferred. A composite particle technology was developed here to modify TPEE. Two-dimensional graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and three-dimensional slag particles were bonded by pretreatment, and then mixed with TPEE. In this case, the Young''s modulus decreased by about 20% relative to the composite containing simply mixed particles. On the other hand, the former showed an evident increase of yielding strength by about 40% relative to TPEE, while the latter only by about 10%. The mechanism was then proposed in terms of alteration of closely packed structure of particles. This work opens a new door for structure and property design of polymer composites.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263822318305440