A Simple Two-Step Process for Producing Strong and Aligned Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites

• Published in: C (Basel) Vol. 5; no. 3; p. 35
• Main Authors: Gbordzoe, Seyram, Adusei, Paa Kwasi, Chauhan, Devika, Alvarez, Noe T., Haase, Mark R., Mansari, Karim, Kanakaraj, Sathya N., Hsieh, Yu-Yun, Shanov, Vesselin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-09-2019
• Subjects: aligned carbon nanotubes; Arrays; Carbon; carbon nanotube-polymer composites; Carbon nanotubes; Chemical vapor deposition; Decomposition; Electron microscopy; Modulus of elasticity; Morphology; Nitrogen; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polyurethane resins; resistive heating; Scanning electron microscopy; Sheets; Tensile strength; Thermogravimetric analysis; thermoplastic polymers; Transmission electron microscopy; Urethane thermoplastic elastomers; United States > US
• ISSN: 2311-5629; 2311-5629
• DOI: 10.3390/c5030035

In this paper, we present the results of a study related to fabrication of polymer-aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) composites made with different thermoplastic polymers. These composites have been manufactured by employing a simple two-step process using the internal resistive heating approach. The resulting composites have shown improved tensile strength, load, and elastic modulus compared to pristine CNT sheets. Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-CNT, UltemTM-CNT and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-CNT composites showed an increase in tensile strength by as much as 41%, 77% and 86% respectively over pristine CNT sheets. The improvement in tensile strength is the result of a good adhesion achieved between the aligned CNTs and polymer as observed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).