The preparation of permanent antistatic additive based on poly(ether-b-amide) copolymers and its modification effect on polyamide 6

Conventional polymers have typically been used in the packaging of various electronic devices; however, due to the inherent electrically insulating properties these materials fail to dissipate static charges. To address this issue, novel poly(ether-b-amide) (PEBA) segmented copolymers consisting of uniform rigid oxalamide and flexible polyethylene glycol (PEG) were synthesized via melt polycondensation. The influence of PEG molecular weight and the spacer length separating two oxalamide units on the condensed structure, mechanical performance, and antistatic properties was systematically investigated. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) demonstrated strongly hydrogen bonded and highly ordered oxalamide hard segments with the degree of ordering between 71 and 85 % even at low levels. Mechanical behavior results showed that segmented copolymers have an obvious yield point, an elastic modulus between 20 and 30 MPa, and strain at break exceeding 2000 %. Meanwhile, such copolymers possessed low surface resistivity, as low as 107 Ω, which is significantly less than that of commercial antistatic additives. The antistatic effect of PEBA on polyamide 6 (PA6) was also investigated, revealing that when the content reached 30 wt%, the surface resistivity of the alloys decreased from 1013 Ω to 1011 Ω and remained stable after 40 days, even after water washing treatment. Overall, these findings illustrate that the newly synthesized PEBA copolymers demonstrate outstanding long-term antistatic properties and provide valuable insights for the development of polyether-based multiblock copolymer antistatic agents.