Study of weathering effect on the thermal conductivity of polyvinyl chloride before and after silicon carbide addition as packaging materials

Abstract

The work was carried out in two stages. The first stage concerned with study of silicon carbide (SiC) ratio (1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 wt%) effect on the Thermal conductivity of polyvinyl chloride (PVC); and the second stage concerned with the UV – weatherizing (25, 50, and 75 hr), thermal aging (40, 50, and 60 ˚C), and rain- weatherizing (1, 2.5, and 4 hr) effect on the samples involved.Thermal conductivity results proved that there was slight increase in thermal conductivity by (SiC) loading; it increased from 0.17 W/m.K for PVC to 0.19 W/m.K for 4.5% SiC/PVC; where as it was systematically decreased by UV- weatherizing, thermal aging, and rain- weatherizing. This property is in a good agreement with general characteristics of packaging materials as warm or cold food packaging.