Conductive and fire-retardant wood/polyethylene composites based on a continuous honeycomb-like nanoscale carbon black network

This study prepares multi-functional wood/polyethylene composites (WPCs) by addition of a small amount of nanoscale conductive carbon black (CCB), leading to honeycomb-distributed WPC (WPCH-CCB). The conductivity, electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI SE), and flame-retardancy of WPCH-CCB were comparatively studied with the uniformly-distributed WPC (WPCU-CCB) prepared through a conventional melt-blending process. The conductivity and EMI SE of the WPCH-CCB reached up to 1.5 × 10−2 S·cm−1 and 20.2 dB at 3 wt% CCB content, respectively. In comparison, the conductivity and EMI SE of the WPCU-CCB only had 8.3 × 10−14 S·cm−1 and 5.0 dB. Moreover, the cone calorimetric analysis revealed that the WPCH-CCB had lower smoke production and heat release than the WPCU-CCB.