Date palm biochar-polymer composites: An investigation of electrical, mechanical, thermal and rheological characteristics Anesh Manjaly Poulose a, ⁎, Ahmed Yagoub Elnour a , Arfat Anis a , Hamid Shaikh a , S.M. Al-Zahrani a , Justin George b , Mohammad I. Al-Wabel c , Adel R. Usman c,d , Yong Sik Ok e , Daniel C.W. Tsang f , Ajit K. Sarmah g a Chemical Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia b Civil Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia c Soil Sciences Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia d Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt e O-Jeong Eco-Resilience Institute (OJERI), Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea f Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China g Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand HIGHLIGHTS • Date palm waste derived biochar was used as filler for polymer composites' applications. • Biochar/polypropylene (BC/PP) com- posites' properties such as electrical, mechanical, thermal and rheological were investigated. • The BC/PP composites' surface resistivi- ty was decreased by four orders of magnitude. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 31 August 2017 Received in revised form 5 November 2017 Accepted 7 November 2017 Available online xxxx The application of biochar (BC) as a filler in polymers can be viewed as a sustainable approach that incorporates pyrolysed waste based value-added material and simultaneously mitigate bio-waste in a smart way. The over- arching aim of this work was to investigate the electrical, mechanical, thermal and rheological properties of biocomposite developed by utilizing date palm waste-derived BC for the reinforcing of polypropylene (PP) ma- trix. Date palm waste derived BC prepared at (700 and 900 °C) were blended at different proportions with poly- propylene and the resultant composites (BC/PP) were characterized using an array of techniques (scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy). Addi- tionally the thermal, mechanical, electrical and rheological properties of the BC/PP composites were evaluated at different loading of BC content (from 0 to15% w/w). The mechanical properties of BC/PP composites showed an improvement in the tensile modulus while that of electrical characterization revealed an enhanced electrical con- ductivity with increased BC loading. Although the BC incorporation into the PP matrix has significantly reduced the total crystallinity of the resulted composites, however; a positive effect on the crystallization temperature (T c ) was observed. The rheological characterization of BC/PP composites revealed that the addition of BC had minimal effect on the storage modulus (G′) compared to the neat (PP). © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Date palm waste Biochar Polymer composites Electrical conductivity Rheology Science of the Total Environment 619–620 (2018) 311–318 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: apoulose@ksu.edu.sa (A.M. Poulose). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.076 0048-9697/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv